Where do home built boats go in the afterlife? I hope
someplace nice.

About eight years ago I built a variation of Bolger's
Shoebox pram, a very simple and functional dinghy. It was 6'
loa and straight sided, would hold two people for a quick
row ashore; one person and some dunnage. One sheet of
plywood, about 30' fiberglass tape, white porch paint, and
that cheap spray-in foam. The most expensive part of it, by
far, was the oars & oarlocks.

The real benefit was that it would fit inside my minivan or
down the companionway of a 28' sloop to be stowed out of the
way. It was kind of cute ...one of my innovations was making
side decks out of the scrap from cutting out the bottom
rocker, so it looked like it had some shape to the hull.
made it more rigid too. Had lots of advetnures in this boat
including running some rapids, surfing, open water rowing in
about 6' chop... this dinghy was towed & rowed across many
bodies of water between Hilton Head & Cape Cod.

Well it was made out of lauan underlayment, and another of
my innovations was to thin the epoxy as I painted it onto
the raw wood. I don't know which of the above two is the
cause, but after two seasons the boat developed dime size
rotten spots on the bottom. I just ignored them for another
year, then it began leaking where a couple of soft spots
intersected the chine, so the boat got moved to the side
yard, where it sat upside down for at least a year.

About 3 years ago I flipped the boat right side up and
decided to use it for a yard waste storage box. I figured
the whole thing would eventually compost. I thought it would
take longer than 3 years, but we did a big yard clean-up
project this weekend and the mulch pile was moved. I found
the spray-in foam, looking pretty much the same as when it
came out of the can. I found about five or six feet of
fiberglass tape, still painted white. I found about a dozen
random looking pieces of spongy wood, painted white. I found
the bow line, which will probably be re-used once it gets
run thru the washer.

Still got the oars & oarlocks, which are being used on our
new dinghy. The mulch (very rich & black) is raked into our
front side yard where we have some flowers.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.
Feels good to know things go full circle. I get a special pleasure from
recycling parts from earlier boats to uses on more recent ones

"DSK" wrote in message
.. .
Where do home built boats go in the afterlife? I hope someplace nice.

About eight years ago I built a variation of Bolger's Shoebox pram, a very
simple and functional dinghy. It was 6' loa and straight sided, would hold
two people for a quick row ashore; one person and some dunnage. One sheet
of plywood, about 30' fiberglass tape, white porch paint, and that cheap
spray-in foam. The most expensive part of it, by far, was the oars &
oarlocks.

The real benefit was that it would fit inside my minivan or down the
companionway of a 28' sloop to be stowed out of the way. It was kind of
cute ...one of my innovations was making side decks out of the scrap from
cutting out the bottom rocker, so it looked like it had some shape to the
hull. made it more rigid too. Had lots of advetnures in this boat
including running some rapids, surfing, open water rowing in about 6'
chop... this dinghy was towed & rowed across many bodies of water between
Hilton Head & Cape Cod.

Well it was made out of lauan underlayment, and another of my innovations
was to thin the epoxy as I painted it onto the raw wood. I don't know
which of the above two is the cause, but after two seasons the boat
developed dime size rotten spots on the bottom. I just ignored them for
another year, then it began leaking where a couple of soft spots
intersected the chine, so the boat got moved to the side yard, where it
sat upside down for at least a year.

About 3 years ago I flipped the boat right side up and decided to use it
for a yard waste storage box. I figured the whole thing would eventually
compost. I thought it would take longer than 3 years, but we did a big
yard clean-up project this weekend and the mulch pile was moved. I found
the spray-in foam, looking pretty much the same as when it came out of the
can. I found about five or six feet of fiberglass tape, still painted
white. I found about a dozen random looking pieces of spongy wood, painted
white. I found the bow line, which will probably be re-used once it gets
run thru the washer.

Still got the oars & oarlocks, which are being used on our new dinghy. The
mulch (very rich & black) is raked into our front side yard where we have
some flowers.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 06:59:23 -0400, DSK wrote:

Where do home built boats go in the afterlife? I hope
someplace nice.

About eight years ago I built a variation of Bolger's
Shoebox pram, a very simple and functional dinghy. It was 6'
loa and straight sided, would hold two people for a quick
row ashore; one person and some dunnage. One sheet of
plywood, about 30' fiberglass tape, white porch paint, and
that cheap spray-in foam. The most expensive part of it, by
far, was the oars & oarlocks.

The real benefit was that it would fit inside my minivan or
down the companionway of a 28' sloop to be stowed out of the
way. It was kind of cute ...one of my innovations was making
side decks out of the scrap from cutting out the bottom
rocker, so it looked like it had some shape to the hull.
made it more rigid too. Had lots of advetnures in this boat
including running some rapids, surfing, open water rowing in
about 6' chop... this dinghy was towed & rowed across many
bodies of water between Hilton Head & Cape Cod.

Well it was made out of lauan underlayment, and another of
my innovations was to thin the epoxy as I painted it onto
the raw wood. I don't know which of the above two is the
cause, but after two seasons the boat developed dime size
rotten spots on the bottom. I just ignored them for another
year, then it began leaking where a couple of soft spots
intersected the chine, so the boat got moved to the side
yard, where it sat upside down for at least a year.

About 3 years ago I flipped the boat right side up and
decided to use it for a yard waste storage box. I figured
the whole thing would eventually compost. I thought it would
take longer than 3 years, but we did a big yard clean-up
project this weekend and the mulch pile was moved. I found
the spray-in foam, looking pretty much the same as when it
came out of the can. I found about five or six feet of
fiberglass tape, still painted white. I found about a dozen
random looking pieces of spongy wood, painted white. I found
the bow line, which will probably be re-used once it gets
run thru the washer.

Still got the oars & oarlocks, which are being used on our
new dinghy. The mulch (very rich & black) is raked into our
front side yard where we have some flowers.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Worth treating the ply, you'd still have the boat. Shame to lose all
the time/materials spent on it.

cheers,
Pete.

Pete C wrote:
Worth treating the ply, you'd still have the boat. Shame to lose all
the time/materials spent on it.


It was built with leftovers in my garage and could honestly
say it didn't cost anything, since I would have had to buy
the stuff for other jobs anyway.... except for the oars &
oarlocks, which I'm not including in the cost since I still
have them and use them on another boat. Realistically it
cost about $30 and four or five hours work.

Considering the use we got out of it, that may be the
highest payoff ratio of play/work I've ever achieved in any
boat.

Frankly I think the problem was the lauan ply. I've used
thinned epoxy on other exposed wood since and have not had
this result.

DSK