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Quick eBay shipping led to a pair of boat vents arriving via USPS today. These will likely be used on the rear deck to ventilate the gas tank / battery area.

Description: Used Wilcox Crittenden chrome over bronze boat vent. It measures 3-9/16″ wide, 4-1/2″ long and 1-3/4″ tall.

Size-wise I would categorize these as “medium”, with a 2-inch version available in plenty of places online, and larger ones (6-8″) available at a premium. I think these will do the job.

The seller had 2 available at $17.99 each, so I got the pair. I had just missed out on larger versions, but I believe I’m going to pump the brakes on getting any more deck hardware until after the flip, or else I may end up with more vents than places to put them.

Wilcox Crittenden seems to be a supplier of after-market boating hardware. I believe they’re in the same category as Perko (my bow light) and also Kainer (my bow handle).

They’re in decent shape. The top sides don’t have any serious corrosion, and may be able to be polished without rechroming. The pointy top may remind boat occupants not to sit on them.

These will likely be the exhaust (pointed backwards towards the aft of the boat), while the intake for these may be on the cowl. Again, we’ll see where they all line up once the flip is completed.

After a very productive February, it seems as though I took a step back this past month. While I could blame the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, my supply lines were actually intact. It seems I merely took a break while I calculated next moves.

Progress:

Original Goal for March 31st: Have frame set-up completed in garage stall 3.

Early work the first days of March allowed me to complete the framing (Frame 7 was all that was left). Then ten days elapsed before I gathered myself to laminate the breasthook and stem, which wasn’t as big an ordeal as I had imagined. A lot of time was then spent with false starts on how to proceed. Options:

• Scarf work:
  • Cutting and scarfing planks for battens, chine and sheer
  • Assemble keel with complicated scarf work
• Setup
  • Rebuild workshop in different garage stall
  • Built setup jig to start the assembly of the frames together
• Encapsulation
  • Clean and dust all frames with denatured alcohol
  • Start the encapsulation process 1-2 frames at a time

In the end I half-assed none of it, yet gave all options my full attention. I’ve decided that April we be an encapsulation month, and then hopefully have the setup platform completed (depending on availability of lumber and their hours during the quarantine).

Hours:

• 12.5 Boat Hours
• 1.25 Shop Hours
• 13.75 Total Hours (March 2020)

I only managed to work on the boat on 7 days in March, five of which were on weekend days. My longest stretch was 3 hours this past Sunday (3/29) when I did all of the layout work in the garage, though I would classify that work as goofing off, for the most part, but I did learn some things (such as my 4″ notches for the keel on a few frames are actually slightly narrower, as they don’t accommodate my exactly 6/4 x 4″ keel. I also numbered my frames with an elaborate font. Whee!

The 1.25 “shop” day was goofing around attempting to construct a jig for batten scarf joints.

Expenses:

• $888.02 on boat
• $33.36 on workshop
• $103.38 on consumables
• $78.74 on shipping/delivery

The Boat expenses were pretty large this month, but I should be in good position going forward:

• $300.31 on Sapele Mahogany for keel, battens, sheer and chine (including 6/4 stock milled to spec for keel)
• $283.96 on Epoxy (1.5 gallon of System Three Silver Tip, plus another half-gallon of Poxy-Grip)
• $265.76 on Silicon Bronze carriage bolts at BoltDepot.com
• $37.99 on a pair of Wilcox Crittenden boat vents off eBay

Most of the Consumables expenses were materials in preparation for encapsulation (drop cloths, rollers, denatured alcohol) and replacement Famowood for the can that dried all up already.

Making okay progress!

Today my silicon bronze carriage bolts arrived! Ordered last week, these will be the fasteners of the frames to the motor stringer, and the stem to the keel. Here’s what $265.76 (plus $16.36 shipping) gets you:

Here’s what’s in the neat packets above:

5/16″ bolts and hardware:

• 4 – 5/16″ x 6″ carriage bolts – attaching the keel to the stem (in front of Frame 6)
• 4 – 5/16″ x 4″ carriage bolts – transom uprights to motor stringer (two per side x two sides)
• 25 5/16″ hex nuts for above (one 25ct bag)
• 25 5/16″ flat washers for above (one 25 ct bag)

1/4″ bolts and hardware:

• 50 – 1/4″ x 3-1/2″ carriage bolts – blocking through stringer (two 25-ct boxes)
• 10 – 1/4″ x 4″ carriage bolts – blocking through thicker frames
• 75 1/4″ hex nuts for above (three 25ct bags)
• 75 1/4″ flat washers for above (three 25ct bags)

I purchased a bit of overage on washers and nuts, as it was much cheaper in “bulk” bags and I’m more likely to drop and lose a washer or nut versus losing a bolt.

Some of the framing I’ve done have had 1/2″ plywood floor gussets applied to the opposite side of the mahogany floor timbers as reinforcements. The longer 1/4″ carriage bolts are for those frames.

While I did order overage, I’m confident that this may be the last time (at least until after the flip) that I’ll need to source silicon bronze carriage bolts.

These were purchased from Bolt Depot (www.boltdepot.com), which had everything available and were less expensive than elsewhere, although I did have to jump through some mental hurdles as nuts and washers were sold separately. On the Glen-L site, they only sell certain sizes, but are helpful in that it’s a bolt+nut+washer combo for one price.