A Shipwright in Training

Many many miles, good meals, good talks, goodbyes… at last in Newport. I spent most of the afternoon at the Wooden Boat Show and had a great time. Within 15 minutes of chatting with the people at the IYRS booth they had me signed up to do a chunk of time manning the exhibit tomorrow. That should be fun, I’ll get to chat up people interested in the school and talk with them about how I got here, about the work, about how they can sponsor cool students like ME in the coming years through their donations… Most of the afternoon I spent talking to people who build boats for a living. The norm is for folks to have more than one income stream, so one guy manages a marina as well as doing repair and new builds. Another spends part of his time doing the repair / upkeep on the boats he has built in the past year. He finds that he can build about 3-4 complete new boats every year with the help of 1 or 2 other staff and they all do allright. Tomorrow will be more conversations. It’s so cool to see many of the boats I’ve read about in Wooden Boat… I spent at least half an hour talking with the folks who built YNOT (cover of WB a while back), and tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Nat Benjamin of Gannon & Benjamin (the folks who own the shop that the book “Wooden Boats” documented), and more , and more , and more…

Yesterday, I left Lake George where I was visiting my old friends Lyons & Laura at Silver Bay YMCA… oh wow. Imagine “The Shining” without any of the creepy stuff… just a huge wonderful old camp on the shores of a lake nestled in between tree-covered mountains. It was a slice of paradise. It was a blast to hang out with them and the kids (Tommy, Eliot, David & Kat) playing tennis, sailing, jumping off a high rock, watching Kat kick butt at the cardgame Spit. Lyons & Laura & I took about an hour and visited the place where they make Hacker Craft boats on Lake George. Good lord. These things are the absolute Cadillacs of power boats and it was really cool to see where they were built and to talk with the old (and young) fellows that made them. Everyone said how lucky they were to work at this place.

I’ve met 2 of the 3 other folks who live at the place I’m renting here, along with Penny, the sweet and MASSIVE pit bull. It’ll take a little while to settle in, but I’m thinking this is going to be a fine place to call home.

So, all is well. Give me a week and I’ll miss everyone so bad I won’t be able to stand it. Right now I’m just digging the 20 min walk down to the harbor and glad that I don’t have to fight the tourist traffic.

The plan was to leave on Tuesday the 15th. We took some time the Sunday afternoon and rented a bunch of boats out at Lake Wingra.  A dozen or so folks showed up to paddle and sail about before the big party.

Tom and Tammy kayaked.

I sailed a boat with the most awful sails I’ve ever seen.

And Lori’s friend Luda (sp?) from Lithuania got to take a turn in the sailboat!

And Deb, who had car trouble and wasn’t supposed to be able to make it from Milwaukee showed up unexpectedly.  Yay!!
For the Big Party I rented the shelter at the park near our house, and Jan and piles of other people made it into a party.  Really, I did next to nothing, other than talk with Jan about what kinds of food it would be good to have.  Lori and Jan brought all manner of pirate garb and I think I looked quite dangerous and villianous, if I may be so bold as to brag.

Whew.

A final push in the last few weeks and the projects are done. At least to the point where someone else can easily so the little final things needed to make them complete. Like Suzanne’s bathroom. It’s done to the point where someone else can drill the hole and install the faucet and plumb it up.

Original drawings and more or less final product. In fact, we decided that the shelves to the right stuck out too much and so we shortened them so that they just barely protruded from the sink base. We also changed the little stack of open shelves on the left side to be a single shelf that welt across the whole left hand opening. There will also be a tile backsplash that goes from the sink base to the level of the drawer stack.

There’s some close-ups of the wood tops. The left and right side are quilted maple and the center drawer stack is topped with curly birch. The idea was to have the sink appear to be floating on the surface of water and it worked out pretty well I think.

The drawer fronts and edging of the shelves was also quilted maple. I’m quite happy with how it came out.

Next, Gail & Ben’s shelves. The tricky part on these were getting the dye right to blend in with existing Danish furniture as well as working with a Very Red wall. After a number of attempts, I think we got it right. The tops on these shelves are also curly birch, and you can see how they compare in color to the curly birch on bath shelves which aren’t dyed.

And last, but not least was the tool box.

I thought it would be heavy when we loaded it with tools, and it was. Too much for 2 people really, so we have to put the main box in the car and then put in the smaller boxes.
The tupperwear tub contains all my waterstones and sharpening gear.

Tools tools tools. And they all fit!

  Ready to go.

As always, the last few weeks here in Madison have been an almost constant flurry of activity. In retrospect it would have been a good idea to close down my practice on Aug 1 so I could finish the projects I’ve committed to… but at the time I was thinking OH SWEET LORD I NEED EVERY NICKEL I CAN GET BEFORE I LEAVE or some other soothing thought like that. So, now it’s work, break to go to the woodshop, back to work, eat dinner, back to the shop. I think once I’m done with these things, I’ll feel completely lost… what do normal people do with their free time???

Here’s what I’ve been working on.
Nancy and KC’s walnut bookshelves.

The corner detail matches a detail on their bannister, and the wood is stained to match the character of ther 100+ yr old farm house.

Word to the wise: walnut plywood is really expensive.

Project 2: Pass through mailbox. Susan is remodeling her house, and wanted a mailbox that projected through the new living room wall (formerly the porch) so that she could get mail without going outside… like the old time milk boxes. We went through a lot of designs, and came up with a little copper-topped one that she liked. Really, the biggest problem was making sure that both the inner and outer doors sealed well to keep the weather at bay. You can operate the little flag from inside the box by moving a lever.

The siding hasn’t gone on yet, and it will cover that large square of copper that’s been soldered to the mailbox roof. The box will also be painted at some point.

Project #3. Bathroom sink / drawers / shelves. Suz wanted a nice vanity for her upstairs bathroom, so we worked out a nifty thing with a vessel sink on the right, a little stack of drawers in the middle, and a little scooped out counter surface with shelves on the left. The countertops are all quilted maple, and with the sink bowl sitting on top, it should give the impression of a bowl floating on a shimmering surface of water. It’s getting close to done and I’m really pleased with it so far. Photos coming soon.

Decisions are made by the people that show up.
Scholarship money is awarded to the people that apply.
I applied, and they gave me a chunk of money!! (by the way, if you want to find out how to fold a dollar so it looks like the picture go here)
Whoo hoo! I’ve essentially got 2 months rent cut off my bill, and that’s not chicken feed.
It’s a funny thing to apply for scholarship money… you have to write a statement telling them why you deserve it. In my case that means that I have to ask myself why I deserve it. What it came down to for me is recognizing that helping to restore boats and promoting restoration in the greater community is in fact a valuable thing to the larger community, not just to my wallet. Apparently the people with the checkbook agreed.