Jersey Girl

Oct. 10, 2017: Jersey Girl's port side panels fit perfectly. (Port is left; starboard is right. In this picture, Jersey Girl is upside-down. When she's turned right-side up, this will be the port side.) Later today, I'll drill and countersink a couple hundred pilot holes, then screw and glue everything together permanently.

Houseboat look-back to Sunday, July 1, 2018 – There came a time over the summer when friends and neighbors showed up to help me flip over Jersey Girl. A few days ago, my friend Jerry handed me a packet of photos he made of the occasion, a sequence of 13 pictures. Here they all are, from the hull upside down to right-side up. Before the festivities started, I used a heavy-duty motor hoist to lift the bow first and then the stern, so I could remove the four sawhorses on which I had built the hull. Then, we raised one side so I could slide six movers’ dollies under that edge. Next, we rolled the hull all the way over to one edge of the driveway, then lifted it up on that edge and slid it over even further. Finally, we s-l-o-o-o-o-l-y lowered Jersey Girl’s hull, right-side up, onto a bunch of scrap tires. Many hands made light work.

Houseboat update, Saturday, July 21, 2018 -- The motor well area is complete, with a raised and angled false bottom to allow rain water to drain through a scupper. The scupper, Jersey Girl's first thru-hull, is made from a short length of PVC pipe set in epoxy in the center of the transom. Because I did not want the true bottom to be unavailable for occasional inspection and maintenance, I cut a rectangular opening, surrounded it with wooden dam, and made a cover to fit over the opening. All the wooden parts are well sealed with epoxy, so any rain will be diverted away from the inspection opening and out through the scupper.

Houseboat update, Saturday, July 21, 2018 (Part 2) -- The framing for the aft deck is complete. When the deck is installed, it will be 47 inches wide by 27 inches long. The forward part of the aft deck will have a door to enter the cabin. The deck will be flanked by two seats, hinged for access to storage compartments below. One compartment will contain a tank for waste water and the other will be for fresh water. Drainage from the recessed deck will be a two-way system. The default will be passive, allowing rainwater to pass through a PVC pipe scupper into the motor well, then out the transom scupper. A secondary drain will divert waste water from a planned shower into a holding tank, so no contaminated water is discharged into public waterways.

Houseboat update, Thursday July 26, 2018 -- Jersey Girl's aft deck, sealed in fiberglass fabric and epoxy on both sides, is dry fit in place. Before I can glue it and screw it permanently, I'll have to pay attention to all the bottom and bulkhead joints that will be difficult to reach once the deck is installed. I'll have to run a bead of thickened epoxy along each such joint and work it into a running cove-shaped "fillet," then cover each length treated that way with a strip of fiberglass tape set in epoxy. That will greatly strengthen the joints and contribute to the hull's resistance to undue flexing when Jersey Girl encounters choppy water. I'll try to get that done tomorrow, because after that I'm taking a week off to attend a plein air watercolor workshop in the picturesque harbor town of Belfast, Maine. Can't wait! (Maybe I'll post a few pix of some of the paintings, if they're halfway decent.)