Jersey Girl

June 29, 2015. The joints in the longitudinal frame are reinforced on the side that will be seen from inside the boat by a decorative wainscoting system, made of pine. Once it's glued and screwed into place, I'll ease the edges in the decorative way and paint it to make it look good.

July 2, 2015. I start to think about tweaks to the design. What if I made the outboard motor well a little more commodious -- could I install a larger engine than the 9.8 hp unit recommended by the designer? And provide a little more stern outside deck space? and maybe a little more cabin space for room for a shower in the area reserved for the head? (Head is toilet in boat-speak.) So I called a temporary halt to building, drew a few ideas on paper and started making a scale model to test my ideas out. When I saw what was happening with the model, I resolved to commit to adding three feet to the length, turning a 17-foot boat into a 20-footer.

July 5, 2015. Continuing to think of modifications to make this still-unnamed houseboat more of a challenge to build (as if it's not already a handful), and more of a pleasure to use when it's done. As I work on the scale model, I notice that flat, 4 x 8-foot deck out front, in the bow. It looks like a perfect place to cover with a retractable fabric shelter to turn it into sleeping space for grandchildren. But what if they roll off into the water? Not good. A nice wooden railing and balusters might be a good idea. But does it really need to be that high up off the water? If it were lower down, it would provide easier access to the main cabin. Then, I think of keeping the sides where they are, but lowering a central aisle, for people to walk through and places for people to sit securely with their feet comfortably down in the central foot well. Looking at the structure that keeps this boat rigid, I conclude that the bottom of the foot well can't be all the way down at the bottom of the boat, because i'll need at least eight inches under the deck for structural timbers and plumbing for rain water drainage. That doesn't seem like it would provide terribly comfortable seating. So I start think now of elevating the side benches by eight inches, to provide a more standard 16-inch seating height. Of course, all this does away with the possibility of sleeping space for those grandchildren (who may be married and have children and grandchildren of their own by the time I get around to actually finishing this thing). Well, what if I elevated the side seating by installing eight-inch-high boxes, hinged along the inside edges so they could be flopped over into the foot well and fill the entire space with a temporary perfectly flat deck that would look just like the designer's original plan. That, together with a railing, would make for an elegant solution. Enough navel gazing, time to get back to work!

July 7, 2015. Off the drawing board and back to the sawdust. The first thing I have to do is cut the stern section off each of the longitudinal frames and splice 36 inches of new length into them. I've decided to put this spliced section in toward the aft part of the boat, between the outside portion of the rear deck area where the motor well will be and aft part of the enclosed cabin. By doing that, I can distribute the extra length between the aft deck and the head area, where I want to install an inside shower. Then, I have to cut away eight inches from the height of the deck supports forward. I'm actually quite nervous about making these fairly radical design changes, and I hope I'm not dooming this project by doing it. I've sent messages to Roy Schreyer, the woodworker who drew the plans (RoyDesignedThat.com), and he was quite encouraging. He told me that he's thinking of a second-generation houseboat with exactly the changes I'm proposing. It was he who recommended lowering the deck by no more than eight inches to allow for additional structural support to make up for the amount of girder effect that I will lose by cutting down the long frames in the area of the forward deck.It makes me feel well supported to know that Roy has my back on things like this and that he is available for consultation.

July 10, 2015. I've reduced the height of the forward deck support in the long frames, and installed additional bracing to make up for the loss of girder effect. I've also beefed up the the bow, anticipating the shape of the forward deck structure. By now, there's enough wood in each of these long frame components that they are heavy and require quite an effort to move. At the same time, each of them is quite floppy without the support of surrounding framework. If I'm not careful, a misstep now will easily snap one of them in two. That would not be a good thing. Another problem: by now, these components are far too long to fit into the garage. I'm going to have to wrap them in plastic and store them on the rear deck of the house to keep them out of the weather while I work on other things, like at least two additional full-width bulkheads to support that slimmed-down bow area, and four more partial bulkheads to accommodate the extra length in the stern.