Design for Mural for Big Daddy Day

One of the activities for Big Daddy Day will be getting folks to help paint a mural on the side of one of the boats in the yard.

Here's the proposed design!

Spring in the boatshop!

with the weather finally breaking a bit, the shop door is open again and there has been lots of progress.

 

Lightning!

George and Alan scarphed the side decks to the front deck

Katie Rogers worked the scarph joint on the rear deck panel

Everybody had a finger in applying the white primer to the inside!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

next:

scarph the rear deck panel to the deck assembly panel

second coat of white primer to inside - try for final primer coat.

 

 

 

 

Skiff!

Katie and Chris touched up the chine joints this week and touched up the primer today

next:

sand out the white primer flat. If it flattens without going through - it is ready for colour.

 

begin painting the interior with the Buff colour.

 

Big Daddy Festival!

lots of books of tickets are out for the skiff draw. If you want a ticket or you can sell some tickets

, call Wayne Koning at 905 877-7342

 

If you wish to participate in one of the events that day call Roni at 647 302-7824

Shepherd Team returns from Florida!

well the great adventure is behind us - what a blast! Long drive south hauling 5 tons of boat and trailer but all went smoothly. Once in Jax we had a few issues to solve with the boat and we finally launched on Friday 18th. Ron arrived so we took a slow cruise to the city - all well.

Florida or Bust picture!

Ron digs into wiring issues



Grant & John up to the task

Monday we head up the St John River

Despina at the Crab Shack for lunch

Shepherd team chows down

Dennis, Ron and John - back on the river

the fleet at Palatka Mon & Tues night



Despina at Tues lunch-Crescent City



BBQ lunch at B&B in Crescent City

Mike, John & Grant racing "Triples"

really - we're not racing!

little 'gator at Corky Bell's Restaurant

Wed AM leaving Palatka

In the boatshop at Walaka

the "fleet" at Blair's Jungle Den

top down - John runs the river!

Ibis, herons, gators and Osprey - every day

approaching Lake Monro & Sanford

lunch on Lake Harris near Mt Dora

MB rides with old friends on Dancing Bear

more pictures to come. We lost our boating on the final Sunday trying to solve a mysterious fuel problem on the port engine. Lots of fun was had by all on our team and we learned some new benefits our Despina can bring to our "Boatride Museum"!

More anon....

Great Adventure Begins!

What a mad scramble the last few weeks!  Tha "Shepherd Team" is heading out in a few moments towing the 27' to Florida for the ACBS St John River Cruise. This will be the boats real maiden voyage since her restoration by your team. LAst week we decised to repack the wheel bearings and ended up installing new axles, brakes and wheels.

Grant reinstalls cuddy locker doors

While you amy have seen the boat in the water a few months ago for one day there was still lots of work to do...scrape and sand the bottom then paint with new antifouling - tear the cuddy appart and refinish it all - pull out the head and rebuild that! etc etc

Rob and Rob fix engine wiring



Jim polishes the bowl...



Anton assembles the pump





THE BOOTH!

All this time we have been running the blog, we haven't done anything to talk up the Boats4Folks Booth, which is located inside the Beaumont Mill building as part of the Antiques & Collectibles market!
Our erstwhile volunteer, Veronica Lester, has been spearheading this part of the Kids N Classics Universe.

Here is some more info regarding the booth:


Kids & Classics Boatshop Museum - Fundraising Booth

    

Calling all volunteers, community supporters, and nautical entrepreneurs!  The Kids & Classics Boatshop would like to announce its goal for aligning our Beaumont Mill Antique & Collectibles booth to fundraising with a theme…boats…boats…and more boats.

 We believe that dedicating the booth’s content to a single focus of “boat related articles” we will successfully draw increased attention to our kids-at-risk program, generate donations to purchase the needed materials to carry out our work, and become the stop and shop place for nautical enthusiasts!

We are announcing opportunity for all Mill vendors and local community entrepreneurs to “sale” their “nautical” items through our booth!  All you need are saleable items that meet with our theme and a willingness to support our local community kids at risk by donating 30% of your sale.  100% of all donations go directly back into the kids program.  

Having said this, we continue to accept and encourage ALL donated articles and will use them in our new monthly and ongoing silent auctions.  Our glass display case will be converted into a silent auction display case !!

We welcome everyone to get on board!!  Please contact Roni Lester @ 647-302-7824 or Malcolm Black @ 905-873-0141 for more information. 

The Varnished Truth w/e Feb 19 11

OOps I seem to have gapped a few weeks! However it doesn't mean nothing has been happening!

Jim and George have been putting in time every week to get the skiff kits ready and they are nearly there. Stems and rip the longitudinals and they are ready.

Chris buggered his back but we were glad to see him back today, right into the Lightning of course. All the old screw holes have been plugged, filled, trimmed and faired. Some more fairing is required before the new deck goes on. Meanwhile George has pretty much finalized the new seating structure and it is ready to come out for sanding, stain and varnish.
 










John and Grant have the big Shepherd's bottom finished and it is back on the trailer. Great adventure today getting it over to John's and up the icy driveway!

This week it is stems and sticks to get the skiff kits finished, stripping, sanding and staining the Lightning parts and begin some lovely varnishing!

The St. John's River Cruisers will be working on the cuddy components, all the safety gear that has to be on board etc.

Know anybody that could use a skiff for their pond? Now's the time to speak up! they can still pick the colour!

The Varnished Truth w/e Jan 11

Bloody cold outside - warm in the boatshop!

Jim Steeves has been leading the charge getting the transoms and knees ready for the skiff kits. With expert help from Ron Frenette, jigs have been made to run these parts easily and accurately - this will really pay off in the future.

Meanwhile everybody has been involved in scarphing up the panels for the skiff bottoms and sides - just one more bottom to cut out now. Anton has worked his magic on the panels and they are smooth as glass! Here you can see Tamara jigsawing out the next batch of skiff sides!

The built skiff in the shop has now had 4 coats of varnish on it's stained areas - looking very nice!

Chris and George have been pressing on with the Lightning and all the deck beam work is done and the new seat structures are ready for stain and varnish. A few original parts still need to be stripped, stained and varnished. All the old screw holes that were holding the deck on were quite bad as they used steel screws so we have drilled them out to good wood and fashioned plugs for all holes - ready for epoxy and setting.

John has been at the bottom or the big Shepherd and all fasteners that were in too deep have been pulled, plugged and reset flush with the bottom. He has squeezed Slick Seam (reccommended by Dwight Boyd of Clarion Boats) into all remaining spots and sanded the whole thing. The paint will be on hand tomorrow and the bottom should have two coats this week - next the cuddy.

Roni is re-inventing the booth to be more "boaty" with the goal of having a sharp focus on why we are doing what we are doing and selling skiffs more often that we have been. Watch for more from Roni!

Come join the crew in Florida the week of March 19-27 on our 27' Shepherd! limit of 6 spots! Accomodation reservations need to be made soon!