Door's Open - Open Doors!

Finally! We can leave the big door open when we are working in the shop and it makes a big difference to the walk-in visiting. It is great to welcome visitors and this is the time of year they are most populous! In the past week several old motor donations have been promised which will help the sea flea programme a lot.

Speaking of which - Mini-Hopper progress.

Bernie has the oak motor boards epoxied in place as well as the framing for the cockpit ceilings. I think the boat is ready for the mahogany stain treatment...

George and Bernie gluing in the motorboards

Wow! almost ready to go - fast!

And on the TNT front.

Steve and  Jason learn the fine points of a good finish - when it comes to sanding "some's good - more's better"! If your fingers can feel it, your eyes will see it when you apply a finish. And where you have filled little dips and screw holes with epoxy, the epoxy sets much harder than the wood so it must be "shaved" off with a very sharp scraper before final sanding - other wise the sandpaper removes the wood and leaves the epoxy like a little volcano in the ocean.

gives "Sand & Sun" a whole new meaning...

Not much progress on the Shepherd Outboard this week, yours truly was tied up with re-assembling the restored trailer for Gas-Hopper. Our plan is to get the Hopper back on her trailer and moved to storage until the boats going in the water this season have been "summerized", touched up and whatever they need! First in will be Dileas our 1947 Hunter.

getting there. Paint by Blastal Coatings - THANK YOU!

And then there's the motor shop - this week featuring JJ and Peter. A few engines have been completed and several more are just about there...

JJ and our faithful 18 HP Johnson

a visitor offered to bring in some Scott parts!

and on a final note, our volunteer and board member Ray, has put a huge amount of time into his new purchased Contessa which finally made it to the water this Monday! This is his first real boat and his participation here is what gave him the knowledge and comfort to jump in!

Ray steps aboard for the first time as Captain

JJ and Ray ready to go

add crew (also first time)

and head out to sea! 

 Well "head out to Lake" just doesn't quite do it...

And that's the week that was..