Jersey Girl

Houseboat update, Saturday, September 7, 2019 – The adventure so far in a nutshell. A friend who is building from the same design I am using for Jersey Girl asked how long we all had been building. I thought it would be worthwhile to share my answer more widely. First, however, major credit goes to the originator of the plans I am working from, even though I have made modifications: Roy Schreyer, at RoyDesignedThat.com. I started work on the long frames and bulkheads of what would become Jersey Girl on June 6, 2015, and then decided to extend the length to 20 feet, so backtracked a bit to saw the frames and add 3 feet in the middle. I ended construction for the year on August 15, 2015. I did no building at all in 2016, because I felt the need to clear space out of the garage by building a bike shed. I resumed construction on May 28, 2017, and by the time I packed her off to winter storage on November 29, 2017, she was a promising but ugly upside-down hull. I resumed work April 9, 2018, and by the time I sent her back to winter storage, she was a somewhat prettier right-side-up hull. On March 20 of this year, I resumed work again, and here she is today, September 7, 2019.

Houseboat update, Tuesday, September 10, 2019 -- I'm a local celebrity, thanks to a couple who are neighborhood real estate brokers. Jon and Lee Long publish a monthly newsletter to help promote their business, and hot-off-the-presses September edition features Jersey Girl and yours truly. Meanwhile, the central portion of Jersey Girl's roof is covered in epoxy-bedded fiberglass fabric, and tomorrow, I'll start priming it.

Houseboat update, Tuesday, September 17, 2019 – I spent the day making a few adjustments and improvements to the central portion of Jersey Girl’s roof, so I did not get to start priming it as I had wanted. First, it seemed to me that I needed to make some sort of drip edge on the roof overhangs in the forward and aft parts of the roof. Otherwise, surface tension of any water would allow it to run off the roof, over the edge and back along the underside of the overhang, and possibly intrude through the joint where it meets the cabin wall. It was a simple matter to cut thin strips of wood, angled from a quarter inch to 3/8 inch, then glue them along the underside of the arched roof. It’ll be harder for water to defy gravity and flow up, so it’ll just drip down form the leading edge of the overhang – or so I hope. Next, because I could not start sanding and priming until the glue on the drip edges cures, I spent some time laminating two more of the arched roof rafters that I used in Jersey Girl. These new laminations will be used as frames for gullwing-style roof panels, which I will install in the roof over the aft deck, to make it easier for people to board without stooping down too much. I’ll use gas-lift cartridges, similar to what you’d find in the rear hatch of an SUV, to raise and lower the gullwing panels. By the way, in making these new laminations, I used exactly the same jigs, methods and materials as I did for the roof supports. They are made of quarter-inch strips sawn from the edges of common 2 x 4 framing lumber from the big box store (in this case, Lowe’s). I am not worried about knots, because I make sure they are encapsulated between two adjacent glued strips, and I even use a strip that has broken on a knot. Trust me on this, it works really well, and the final result suffers no noticeable strength loss. Nor is there any spring-back from the curve when the lamination is unclamped from the jig. I know I’m probably going to offend the same purist “experts” who told me the last time I wrote about this that I would wind up with a “crap boat” because I was using “crap wood,” but – sorry to disappoint them – the results prove otherwise. I’m more than satisfied with the strength and the rich textured appearance of my choice of “crap wood.”

Houseboat update, Saturday, September 21, 2019 -- I'm about to get back to work on Jersey Girl for the day under a cloudless blue sky, and I notice a perfect half moon above, in the southwest. Life is good.

Houseboat update, Sunday, September 22, 2019 – Now that the final finish coat has been applies to the central portion of Jersey Girl’s arched roof, I can turn my attention to the more easily reached “shoulders” – the two outboard sides of the roof. In preparation for that, though, I’ve decided to close in the sides of the cabin that will accommodate the head on the starboard side and the galley on the port. That’s because each of these beadboard outer walls will have windows, and I’ll need to install the dripcaps over those windows before the roofing overhangs make it difficult to do that. So, I’ve included a few pictures of how the starboard side is beginning to look with the planks temporarily put in place for fit, before gluing and screwing. The window that will go into that opening is a fixed transom-style window, but I've built a wooden frame around it, and the entire assembly will be hinged at the top so that it can open, like an awning, outward. There will be an identical wndow on the port side, where the galley will be. By the way, I’ve made a design decision: The decoration on the door to the head will be a crescent moon and a plaque that says “Ship’s Library.” At least, that’s my inclination du jour.