Another day...another boat

Sunday, April 6, 2013

“Hey, Uncle John.  I’ve got some time today and was wondering if you wanted to work on the boat,” Nathan said.

“I would love to, but I’m with Uncle Jeff and we’re heading to his boat to mess with a leaky ice maker.  I could do it tomorrow, though,” I replied.

We agreed that he’d pick me up at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, which meant that I’d have to miss church and that I’d end up spending the better part of the weekend working on boats.  I also suspected we’d be at it most of the day, up to family dinner time and thus – no workout.

He arrived at the house on schedule and we quickly loaded my tools into his truck for the drive to Grand River Marina in Fairport Harbor.  Though it was supposed to warm up, we’d be working outside in the weather, so I grabbed my Carhartt, hat, gloves and pullover, figuring I’d rather have it and not use…blah…blah…blah.

The sun was out and the temperature climbed steadily towards fifty.  I spent the next six hours removing the transom from the stern of the boat, which was a huge challenge.  I would have liked to have just taken out the brass screws attaching it to the ribs, but the brass heads were stripping and it was clear this would not be an option.  I ended up having to use my circular saw to cut a strip up either side of each rib and across the top to at least salvage part of the beautiful mahogany board that had made up the old transom, but removing the part left attached to the rib was done one excruciatingly slow screw at a time. 

I passed the circular saw to Nathan who was similarly engaged cutting the deck off above the salon and sleeping quarters.  We tried to move quickly so we’d have time enough for a lunch at Sammy’s Family Restaurant in Grand River and to tarp off the boat before leaving.  By the time we’d both removed what we were working on, the entire interior cabin and hull were exposed to the rain, which was on its way.

Nathan had purchased a 50’ by 30’ tarp to cover the boat.  Trying to do anything with this size tarp is difficult for two people, and that’s before you consider the ‘wind’ factor (blowing about 20 knots off Lake Erie) and that we needed to get it up and over a boat that was about 15’ high at its tallest point.  As he tried to tie his fancy ‘boat person’ knots to attach the tarp to the boat cradle, he complained, “these grommets suck.  This tarp is going to be flapping in the wind before we get out of the marina.”  I could see them starting to tear and figured he was probably right.

We drove home pleased with our progress and I arrived with barely enough time to throw some dinner together for the family gathering.  My father-in-law stayed to watch ‘Dances with Wolves’ and it was 9 p.m. before he left.  Workout?  No such animal again, but my activity level over the weekend was high.  Still – it’s not the same and my conditioning continues to suffer.  I think what I really need to do is retire.