Free Boat Navy

I haven't been posting because I haven't been been bladesmithing since the weather got nice, good intensions notwithstanding. During the good weather, I'm pretty much overwhelmed with yard work, chores and the honeydew list, along with my regular duties as chief cook and bottlewasher (that's right, I am PW, but my little wifie is not so good at those things, so it's OK by me.) I would be back in the shop, and I will be after I get my new bandsaw (check this little baby) and a few supplies, but I've somehow been drawn into the nautical world by my friend Doug, packrat and junk aficianado like myself, who has somehow managed to score TWO broken sport boats.

The first prize is a 1977 Sea Ray SRV 185 with a (seized) mercruiser 165 and a rotted deck and transom, plus a fairly beat but still servicable single axle trailer. We spent a couple of days tearing out rotted seats, trim and plywood, and I've started cutting new wood to repair the deck and transom. It looked pretty good when we got it, but neither of us knows sh'ite  about boats, although Doug is a professional (auto) mechanic and instructor. If we had known how clapped-out it was, I'm sure we wouldn't have taken it, (the economics term "sunk costs" probably originated with boat builders) but after all the time we spent tearing it down, we're determined to get it ship-shape by spring. There are lots of these things on Craig's List for cheap or free; I imagine that a many people buy a new boat and let it sit or get rid of it when they lose interest . It's obvious that these are rather cheaply made except for the hulls; a lot of un-glassed and even un-primered plywood trim and components, plus various degrees of neglect while the thing sits in the driveway for years (I call it "seasoning") until the better half finally screams "Get that thing out of here!"

I've got it (barely) in my garage, drying out while I build a pole barn, something I've been meaning to do to have a place to store my lawn equipment. It's a joke working in there now, picking my way around mowers and motorcycles and suchlike, but after we finish the hull repairs, we can leave it in the weather until we get the motor back together, which is now taking up my entire workbench - an old door laying across my nearly abandoned project Bronco frame. The motor need s to go to the machine shop, but we're proceeding very slowly because we want to be sure we can finish it before we start sinking a lot of money into it. Time I got, but if I wanted to spend a lot of money, I could just buy one in good condition for a couple grand; a lot of these are on Craigslist right now, being Winter and all.

After we got pretty far into the first boat, scroungemeister Doug found another freebee with a fragged outdrive, but in overall good condition, much newer, although I haven't done the research yet to determine exactly what it is or when it was manufactured. The deck is pretty badly rotted, though. To our mutual horror we  found the deck was not even glassed; just carpet over plywood over foam. That is too cheaply made, but I guess it had a relatively good price-point. Somebody bought it, after all, but then they just didn't take care of it. There doesn't seem to be any serious rot beyond the deck; fingers crossed that the motor turns over and the deck can be repaired easily, because it's much nicer than the searay, extended transom and a cuddy cabin and a really nice trailer. The cuddy cabin is kind of a must-have if women are aboard unless you've got the kind of gal that can just hang it over the side, a rare find in this day and age. [It just occurred to me what the swim ladder is for; I was wondering why anyone would want to get out of a perfectly good boat unless it was docked or sinking]. Tomorrow we'll finish stripping it and see if the motor cranks (Inshallah!), and get some pictures of both tubs. I hope we catch a break, because I need to finish something.