Saturday, July 20, 2013

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

New shop / new plan

We have been off the computer awhile enjoying summer.  I had the fun job of taking our youngest son to Camp Sea Gull in North Carolina.  We had never seen it but heard it was the place to go for sailing.  Wow, what a place. A beautiful setting on the Neuse river near Pamlico sound and the facilities are first class !  Boats every where.
Check out this link:
http://www.seagull-seafarer.org/
After a great trip to North Carolina we packed up our shop and home and moved to a nicer home slightly closer in the the city.  It has plenty of room for the boats and the shop space is functional too.
We are setting up a small part shop in a large utility area and the big molding will take place in a two bay garage.
Our first order of business is beefing up our shafts.  We had a couple of failures so we are reworking the layup schedule.  The first new test shafts feel much stiffer.  We put more CF tow under tension as the first layer of the shaft.
We will break some to see the difference.

We registered with the Coast Guard as a boat manufacturer and received the Manufacturer's code:
S E A
How about that!  It wasn't taken.
SeaNymph was the previous manufacturer with the designation but it has been out of business over 10 years.
Ron Hassler of PPG Marine gave us a visit on behalf of the Coast Guard to inspect our operation and see about compliance to safety regulations.
In our application we listed the Mississippi River Skiff as one of our boats.  In order to sell the skiff we have to calculate the capacities and powering of the craft.
Ron walked us through the calculations.  The Coast Guard has formulas that are based on the maximum capacity of a boat (the weight needed to sink it in still water). To get and accurate number for the maximum capacity,  the easiest way to figure it is to get a flow meter, fill the boat to sinking in a pool or pond.  Then when you have the water volume, calculate the weight (fresh water is 8.34 pounds to the gallon).
We will do this and properly label the boat before a sale.
The MRS is a great boat but for our next boat we are interested in a molding project.  In a future post we will share some of the ideas we are working on.