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Hummer - Building 1

Philippians 3:10

MATURE • MENTOR • MINISTER • MAINTAIN • INVESTING IN BLACK FUTURES THRU STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Hummer's up on YouTube.

"Hummer" is both the German and Norwegian word for "lobster"

Click here for the original Hummer blog

Click here for Hummer's Voyages (nautical charts and notes)

Click here for 2006 photos of Hummer's 1st summer off the Maine coast

Click here for photos of the sail kit phase of construction

Click here for 2007 photos of Hummer's 2nd summer off the Maine coast (as a sailboat)

  PASSAGEMAKER PROGRESS REPORT  
from the Downeast Boat Shop
 
Named it thus 'cause it's "down" in the
basement and over on the "east" side.
Ayuh, ya got it. Confirmed Maine-iac.

Over the past 10 months I built an 11' 7" dinghy, figuring I'd need something practical
with my hands during the winter months to offset the academic pressures of school.

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea."
Tagore (Bengali poet and novelist)

        Click here for photos of Hummer 2006 in action on the Maine coast        

Hey!  C.L.C. Boats posted a picture of my boat at their Website (it's at the bottom of this page)
The photo of "Hummer" was taken in July 2006 on the western shore of Somes Sound
in a place called Valley Cove on Mount Desert Island — off the Maine coast.

The okoume mahogany wood comes from Gabon in West Africa,
turned into marine plywood (BS 1088 grade) at a mill in France,
and was pre-cut at Chesapeake Light Craft in Annapolis, MD.  

Technically speaking, "Hummer" "began" in Africa ...

Okoume African mahogany forest, Gabon, W. Africa
photo courtesy of The Joubert Group

... then did some time in France ...

Okoume logs at the Joubert mill (?) in France )
photo courtesy of westwindhardwood.com

Okoume peeled ready for processing into plywood
photo courtesy of The Joubert Group

Okoume plywood grain

... then was pre-cut at Chesapeake Light Craft in Annapolis, MD

before coming to the Downeast Boat Shop in Philadelphia, PA

"Hummer" parts laid out mid-September 2005.
It's a Passagemaker Dinghy from C.L.C. Boats.
Target finish date: late spring/summer of 2006.

Curing the epoxy-ed scarf joints of hull panel sets 1 & 2.
The bow transom and skeg are towards the back.
Hull panel sets 3 and 4 are already done.
The bottom floor panel was next to
get epoxy-ed (below), posing
with the two transoms
October 10, 2005.

After the epoxy/sand/epoxy/sand process it felt good to start stitching.
The first Hummer looks on as the second Hummer starts taking shape.
Dad came over and helped out with some of the drilling and stitching.

Bottom with #1 and #2 hull panels.

Dad checks the port-side's #4 hull panel.

All hull panels now installed — 280+ stitches.

Bow and stern transoms installed — 37 tougher stitches.  Thanks, Dad for making it happen.

View from over the stern.  Both transoms are now epoxy-ed in place and their stitches removed.

Water-line view of port hull strakes stitched with copper wire.  Thinking about Noah today.

Even though I had diligently pored over the dinghy's exact specs and prodigiously measured the basement
door & stairwell many times before ordering the boat kit, I became concerned anew after seeing just how
 big it was once the hull was stitched together.  Not wanting to build a ship in a ( basement ) bottle, I built
 a 3-D scale model of both the boat and the door and stairwell, just to be absolutely sure it would clear--
at least not without removing some molding.  Whew!  It should be fine, although a bit tight.  I thought
about relocating the boat to the 1st floor because once the epoxy's applied, there's no turning back.

Fore, amidships and aft bulwarks stitched in place — January 20, 2006.
Took about 50 stitches.  Sent off application for a serial number today.

Hull-side up with all the wire stitches pulled, panel seams sealed and some 720 wire holes filled.
Finished same as a nor'easter started ramping up its wintry wallop outside, February 11-12, 2006.

The pile of clipped 'n pulled copper wire strands that held the hull together for epoxy-ing

 Hummer's hull ID number and registration number arrived from Augusta, ME on March 4th

Instead of fiberglassing just the bottom panel, I decided to fiberglass the adjacent #1 hull panels
as well, remembering that this boat's gonna be sailed around Maine's rocky coastal environment

Interior fiberglass fabric is ready for epoxy saturation.
Dad came through once again to help out with the process.
Ropes used to 1.) turn the boat over, 2.) maintain the hull's shape.

Interior fiberglass fabric set and hardened, excess ready to be trimmed off.

Inverted center seat, dagger board trunk and amidships bulwark assembly.

Here's how it looks right-side up and loosely positioned n the boat.

Calvin and I did a test run gettin' Hummer out of — and then back into — the basement.
Wow, what a relief — 'n with some room to spare!  Concerns about building a boat in a
( basement ) bottle disappear as construction presses on.  Maine coast's on the horizon.

Center seat assembly installed along with the fore and aft bulwarks—both fitted with 6-inch port holes.
The rear seat has yet to be wood-flour-epoxy-ed in, but it's in place to keep the hull balanced & tuned.

The Downeast Boat Shop air is filled with the smell of fresh varnish;
not from the boat ( just yet ), but from some newly minted 8 ½ ' oars
that arrived May 16, 2006 from Shaw & Tenney, up in Orono, Maine.
Made of spruce, they're nice and light, and waiting for the leathers.
Chompin' at the bit to get back at the boat when ( if ) school lets up.

Pied Beauty
1877
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Glory be to God for dappled things —      For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;           For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;      Landscape plotted & pieced — fold, fallow, & plough;           And all trades, their gear & tackle & trim.                All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled, (who knows how?)      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;           He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:                Praise him.

Skeg & bottom skids installed.  Had to go at it solo due to a friend's equally crazy, busy, tight schedule

Deviated from the standard installation of two outer rub rails by placing one inside the top hull panel.
Notched out the tops of each bulwark, tucked the inner rail in, creating the inside ½ of each gunwale.
After adding the outer rail ( sandwiching the top hull panel ), there's now an overhang inside and out. 

Hummer's H.I.N.

Friend Mark L. came through for a quick visit — said he really liked how the boat was looking.
Almost done with the construction phase now that the seats are in. Only seven small parts left.
The next big task: sanding the whole thing down, prepping it for varnish 'n paint, inside 'n out.
Where be the sailing parts?  They'll have to wait until next winter.  Oars 'n motor this summer.

June 9, 2006: Hummer construction phase completed.  On to the sanding!

Hummer's interior sanded down and shiny no more — went at it 3 times: from 80 grit to 120 then to 220

Really glad to be done ( for the most part ) with sanding the boat down for the paint and varnish.
Here's how it looks with the first coat of primer applied.  Even the blue masking tape looks sharp!

1st coat of Interlux Brightside Blue-Glo White sets the hull a'shine
( no lobsters were harmed in the taking of this photograph )  

Fix up, look sharp!  The 1st coat of Interlux varnish went on fast 'n easy — an actual joy to apply.

The assembly & finishing of Hummer 2006 is complete and she's been sprung 
from the Downeast Boat Shop here in Philadelphia: thanks for your help, Sam.
The boat is set to sail around the Mount Desert Island and Deer Island regions 
of the Maine coast sometime during the summer 2006 — looking forwuhd to it.

   Click here for photos of Hummer 2006 in action on the Maine coast    

Kids playing in the neighbor's pool saw me putting Hummer on the grass, jumped 
out of the water, hopped the fence and climbed into the boat, having a great time.

 The building continues as "Hummer" is transformed into a sailboat during the fall & winter of 2006-07 

Daggerboard, tiller, rudder parts, boom, yard, mast parts, sails (in bag) and hardware (sans fairleads)
September 7, 2006

Passagemaker w/ sail kit : finished it!
Photo courtesy of CLC Boats

NOT my basement boat-building project.  This is a replica of the 1607 'Godspeed' from Jamestown, VA.

Click here for the original "Hummer" blog

Click here for 2006 photos of Hummer's 1st summer off the Maine coast

Click here for photos of the sail kit phase of construction

Click here for 2007 photos of Hummer's 2nd summer off the Maine coast (as a sailboat)

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