Author: mscottault

I come from an industry that definitely isn’t *precise* as boat building is.. and my tools are rough and produce rough cuts. I’m hoping to get A) a table saw and B) a Mitre Saw soon so that my cuts can be more precise and accurate.. my saw blades tend to drift off of their “compased devine” according to their own inspiration.

But, one thing that I’m happy about is that I have learned a thing or two about making a difference. In this, I’m refering to my new Nail Gun and how reviews of the machine said it gunned the nails in “proud.” PROUD refers to when something is supposed to be flush but.. it isn’t. As we see, at right, the board has PROUD nails sticking out. But that cool little tool beside the board is a Spring Loaded Nail tool.. point it at the nail, pull the other end back and let it SPROING and.. no more proud nail! It’s pretty cool.. and yeah, I’ve gone through a couple of them- that’s how many square feet of commercial painting I’ve done.

The “featured image” above is a shot of The Boatshed as it is today.. proud to say it’s a bit cleaned up and so is a bit easier to work in.. not massively easier but that’s for another day. The boat is, sadly, getting to be too long for the space so, I’m having to think long and hard about wheather to move her or not. Not sure. We’ll see. 

So, as I’ve mentioned.. I’m car camping in order to explore minimal spacial allowances and lifestyle needs.. and I’ve been spending a lot of time at the boatshed working on the TeenyTinyArtCollective show that is this weekend.. and putting hammer to wood.. drilling.. attaching.. enlargening TheBoat.

I decided to “shore up” the supports.. they call the thing you build a kayak on (or maybe any boat.. not sure) a “StrongBack” and mine isn’t all that strong. I’m a graduate of the construction industry school of thought that says “close enough” and well.. I picked up a pair of “brackets” that hold a couple of 2×4 pieces and you can add in some cross pieces (you can see them in the photo) that’ll create a sort of table. I haven’t really checked in on mine since I loaded it with TheBoat until today.. but the wood is warping a bit 😉 Nothing serious.. just not “straight” so, this boat will be a floating work of art, I guess.

Thing is- the “strongback” I built maybe is OK to hold TheBoat as I build her but.. the boat AND me? Nope. No way. Not on your life. So.. I had to “shore” her up and add in a bunch of wood supports to make sure nothing cracked and failed (yes, that is a reference to good ol’ Canondale bikes and their early days nickname.. being “crack ‘n’ fail” specifically). I didn’t want all the work I had done so far to come crashing to the ground splintering like Donalds boat did in the basement of my Gastown warehouse studio.. he had that boat pulled SO TIGHT that one night all you heard was *PING* *PING* *PING* as each and every copper tie that he used gave way and in the morning.. all he had was semi shaped pieces of semi epoxied nautical plywood scattered about the room. Yeah, he was depressed. Moved out shortly there after (and Sparkle Faerie and I moved down stairs in to his loft 😉 ). 

So… with the strongback shored up.. I climbed aboard and.. at first, I was holding the rafters of the garage to stave off some of my massive weight that has grown even more massive over the last year of inactivity.. but then I let go and sort of stood there.. shook it about a bit.. and well… LEFT FOOTY PRINTS in the cockpit! And yes, in the photo you can see a 2×3.. that is gonna be part one of the seat mount. I’m not sure how tall I’m going to make it- maybe 4″ tall.. I wanna keep it low. In fact, I wanna keep the whole boat low.. Low Profile as the saying goes.

But yeah.. I was standing on the cockpit and getting an eyeful of potential build sizings and needs. Felt pretty good. 

Oh- the featured image for this post is a side view (obvie!) of TheBoat.. what ur seeing is, pretty much, the raw inner layers of the hull. I was gonna set myself to building the transom (the vertical plate at the back of the boat.. in motor boats, the motor mounts on to it).. so, you can see that it’s a void right now. I’ve decided to wait until I flip the boat (which is pretty much the next step- Flippy FLippy and LOWER her down to make working on her easier) to lay out the plywood hull bottom.. and when that is done, the “bathtub” (as I’m calling this stage) will be pretty much done!

So, I’ve been saying that I wanna run with a “leave no traces” theory.. that means EVERYTHING that gets loaded IN to the boat needs to come OUT of the boat.. in one form or another.

This thought is brought about by reports that the Cruise Industry is HORRIBLE for dropping waste before they come in from International Waters.

This is, also, motivated by other ocean going microboats and their tendancy to “toss” it overboard. All of it. 

So, I started by researching composting toilets- nope, I’d have to haul SO MUCH soil and chemicals and other stuff.. not viable.

Then I found out about INCINERATOR toilets.. but man, the electrical ones eat up energy like there’s no tomorrow and the gas ones well- I’d need a HUGE space for it and then the space for the gas too.. so.. what am I to do?

I know where the shitter is gonna be and how it’s just tucked in under a bench seat between the captains seat and the bed.. but what could fit? And how to make it all work.. then a photo scrolled past my eye space and it all made sense!

I’ll be using an old “Ammo Box” as a holder.. and it’ll sit UNDER the bench seat (lidded for use) and then I’ll put it in to a combustion chamber and light up a STERNO solid fuel cannister~ the cannister, once empty of fuel, doubles as a burnt waste storage container!

The heat from the sterno will.. dry all the waste to powder.. 

So, I went to THE ONLY “army surplus” shop in Calgary.. wasn’t easy to find.. and luckily he hadn’t closed for the day as I spent ages driving in circles looking for it.. and he had a 30cal can- smaller than the 50cal cans I saw on marketplace.. but it is DOPE! I’ll be bringing acetone with me to strip the paint off, clean it up, add some stove cement and then repaint it with high temp “rustoleum” paint..

But the cool thing for me is having a few days to work on the boat. It’s been a couple months and I had intended on coming back to good ol’ YYC to put some hours on her about a month ago but.. work demanded I stay in Terrace. The work done, over the last couple days, has been.. daunting.. depressing.. uplifting.. and self- re-affirming.. even if MORE detractors are sending me messages that a project like this can’t happen.

Lemme tell you.. it CAN and it will!