Pico Boating: Slow Progress

“No you can’t always get what you want.” – Rolling Stones

The daily requirements of life can be such a time suck, at least from the perspective of someone wanting to build a boat.

I spent a couple of hours this morning working on my boat project, the Selway Fisher Micro 10, and got some of the doubling done on Frame A, the first frame after the transom, the one nearest my feet as I lounge about in the cabin.  Douglas fir stock from the local Lowe’s Hardware and Lumber that was then filleted in with System 3 EX Fillet.

It took several hours for it to harden fully, and by then it was getting dark, so I’ll need to be sure it hardens fully tomorrow morning. (it did) I’ve been trying to work VERY carefully and neatly, which isn’t really my natural state of mind.  It’s feeling great, though, to see things turn out so neatly, especially when compared to my first boats.  I put tape down to act as an edge for a neat line when doing fillets.  Here’s an example from a model rocket project I found online.

I’lLater:  Here’s a couple of pictures.

Whenever I use EZ Fillet I use any leftover material to fill cracks or voids or surface imperfections.  Hence the splotches.

But getting back to the “wisdom” of the Stones… before I knew it, my wife was wanting some help with cleaning up the back yard, as we were having some guests over for a barbecue.   Then, as I am usually the cook in the house, I did a grocery trip and prepped the dinner.   Between work, late meetings, and family commitments, it’s hard to find the time to keep the project going.

By the way… at dinner when the subject of my boat build came up my wife said, “he’s building his coffin”.  Sigh.  She’s not a fan of this build.

I also built a strongback, patched a leak in the other boat I am building (I’ve got it bad, don’t I?), and added some of the doublers to the center keel.   I’ll get some pictures in here or in a later post.

By the way, James wrote me to say:   “Hello Bryan, I’m happy to see someone is building a Micro 10. This is a design I’ve been interested in for some time. Here is some documentation of a Micro 8, you may have seen it already. http://www.nauticaltrek.com/12357-la-continuation-d-une-obsession So, do you think this design can “dig in” and sail to wind? I once contacted Paul Fisher and asked him if the design could be extended to say, 16 feet. He replied it would be no problem. Good luck with the build, cheering you on here.”

Any thoughts from anyone?

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Author: Bryan Lowe

A website about Shantyboats and affordable living on the water. More than 800 stories to date, and growing.

3 thoughts on “Pico Boating: Slow Progress

  1. I came up on an analogy the other day, in the book “The First 20 Minutes” you may enjoy.
    The Sea-Squirt is not one of nature’s more charismatic creatures, but it’s life story is instructive to modern humans. Tubular,opaque and squelchy, it resembles a worm-fish from Mars.But the Sea Squirt is in reality more closely related to humans than other fish.It”s a member of the chordate family, just as we were a long time ago, in another evolutionary form. When scientist sequenced the entire genome of the Sea-Squirt a few years ago, they found long sections of DNA identical to our own.
    At birth, infant Sea-Squirt larvae have a brain, not much of one; it consist of a few hundred brain cells and some nerve endings. But it does allow the squirt to think in a rudimentary fashion.Young squirts need to find a home. They can’t just float aimlessly for the rest of their lives. So directed by these few neurons they begin swimming.The movement seems to strengthen the brain and the nervous system connections.The squirt may even add a few dozen brain cells while wandering. But then it finds a underwater rock, a ship hull, or perhaps a lazing walrus and attaches itself. Adult squirts are sissile; they pass they rest of their lives clamped to a single surface, waving with the tides but otherwise never moving from that spot.
    So their brains die. The neuron and nervous connections shrivel and are absorbed into the squirt’s soggy tissues. There is a strong connection between activity and brain function in animals,”according to Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, PHD, a professor of physiological science at the University of California, Los Angeles. When squirts stop moving it has no further use for a brain.”
    Also in the movie “Running the Sahara” the runners came across a tribe of nomads, that were constantly moving with their possessions. They considered a house a coffin.
    Men don’t set still or your dead meat.

    1. A great story. Thanks for that! I did make some progress today. I’ll post pictures in a bit.

  2. I love it. If we live life, use our brains, fall in love, sail in very small boats we always risk something going wrong and maybe learning something from it. If you are happy to spend your days as a vegetable in front of a television then go ahead. Otherwise we have to do something. There is no more complete way to take responsibility for yourself than to build your own small boat and sail it on the ocean.

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