Ship's boat W.I.P.

[Captain_MacNamara]

Well, It's been a while since I last posted here, to say the least...

Our crew acquired an old galvanized steel rowboat... and ugly thing to be sure, and not our first choice of materials, but free be free. I'm fairly decent at modifying things, just not building them from scratch, so this presents a perfect project. Inspired by the Beer Bard's Privateers mini-brig project, we'll be modifying this into a small ship-looking sailable longboat as it were. Here she is, barely into the cleanup phase before we get to adding wood to her:

Fore:

Aft:

She's 13 1/2 feet LOD at the moment.

[Dutchman]

handy eh? how bout this for a thought. foam core bow to get rid of that blunt, it looks like you may be able to put a wooden foredeck on her mounted to the gunnels and those triangular supports. laminate some thin plywood to make your new bow out of wood. and if you are insistant on trying to set sail think about lee boards. to be honest i don't see you making much headway under sail, but darned if we can't have some fun getting you there though!!!!

[Captain_MacNamara]

Aye

I plan on building up the foredeck and stern, as well as mounting a jib and mainmast. I already have a jib and mainsail roped and grommeted, ready to rig. I hadn't decided yet if I wanted to go with leeboards or put a keel and daggerboard on her since the bottom is flat. I'm kind of going for something similar to this from the Beer Bard's Privateers:

She's 7 foot 10 inches LOD, so ours has a bit of length on her already. I would have loved to have built our hull from scratch, but this shell was given to us, so we works with what we got

For our sail configuration, for now I'm going to rig one jib sail and a main(no topsail), and maybe a gaff later on if we need more sails

She'll also be mounted with 2 swivel guns

[bbprivateer]

Argh me hearty... Yer boat is coming along quite fine... I am glad to see yew haven givin' up the cause m' fine c'ptain

Too bad she is many seas away.. or we could do some battle together.. I look forward to the day when our swords may cross.

Here is a video of the brigs battling this year

You may take a liken to the Westport mini-brigs... aye.. but we have more cannon! Ya may knotta knew it but we added another brig to our fledging fleet...

Heres some pictures fer ya fur sure:

If yar ever need a lil' hand with yer boat... just drop us a line... HAR!

Conner O'Dae

Beer Bard Privateers

http://bbprivateer.com

[Captain_MacNamara]

Well, I believe an update is in order. We took her out for her maiden voyage yesterday, at a rather large local lake. It was a hot day, and we worked up a sweat riggin' her for sail. Unfortunately, we left the mainmast back at the house, so we had to use a smaller aluminum pole, and forgo rigging the main. This meant naught but a loose-footed jib and oars... So we took her out with the intent to just see what happens.

We rowed out about 100 yards offshore... the waves were only about a foot tall at this point, and we ran up the jib. It was a beautiful sight, once she caught the light breeze, with our colors waving lazily above. We came about, and started heading back to shore... and then the wind picked up. We were fighting both the current, and the wind at this point, which had changed course. We lowered the sail, and rowed for all we were worth, belting out "Haul away Joe" as we went, but made no headway. The seas had other plans for us it seemed. After about 45 minutes straight rowing with no headway, we came about again and ran up the sail. She caught the wind, and even with the tiny jib as our only sail, she started pulling for open water at a decent clip. Then the wind picked up some more as storm clouds came rolling in.

The rolling waves were cresting at four foot whitecaps now, and the wind was a steady unrelenting force. She was rolling on the waves faster now, and we laughed as the spray pelted us, our little thirteen and a half foot dinghy the only boat out on the lake. We were about three quarters of a mile out now, rolling on the swells. She weathered the change in weather well, and didn't take on but a half inch of water. We set our course toward the other side of the lake, where there was another boat dock and swimming area we could safely put in at. We were having a blast, making fun of the other boaters who were too timid to be out on the lake.

Then the mast snapped at the deck. She heeled over a bit, but nothing serious as I worked to right the mast. The wind was even stronger now, and I braced myself against the starboard side, keeping the mast upright and braced against my body. The sail held, still full of wind, still carrying us to the far shore. The waves were still at about four feet, but coming faster now. The air had turned cold, and the water colder still, but we were still having fun. When we were about 50 yards out from the dock area, people started gawking, which we had expected... it's not every day you see a pirate boat under sail, bearing down on you. All but two of the people there piled into their cars as fast as they could and left! Then we aimed our little boat at a spot of beachlike shore, and saw only too late the rocks that blocked our access. Too late to come about now, we braced for impact, ready to hop out and drag the boat ashore. She came to a full stop, and then the first wave hit before we could even get out. She was half full of water with that first wave, but we still hauled as hard as we could on her to get her ashore. No such luck... She was completely full of water now, and she couldn't handle the strain. With the waves pounding on her, and her being full of water, the starboard side buckled under the strain. We tied her off to a rock, and looked for a ride back to the other side of the lake.

Once we got my truck from the other side of the lake, we tried to pull her out, but she refused to budge. We tried bailing her out, but with the waves coming in as they were, the water was filling the boat faster than we could bail it out. We stripped her down, left her tied off to a rock, and came home with our tale.

Once the weather dies down in a few days, and the lake calms, I'll go out and try to bail the water out again... but even if she's lost to us, we have our adventure, and ideas for improvements. Most of all, the desire to get back out there.

[Littleneckhalfshell]

Wow! Sorry for your loss, but it sounds like you did a reinactment of the sinking of the Whydah! but at least in this case all hands survived.

[1stMate Matt]

Awesome story! Love it!

[Captain_MacNamara]

Oh, it was a blast, up until the loss of the boat. Hopefully I'll be able to get her out later this week.

We're all still laughing about it though.

[pyrateleather]

So sad, hope she can be salvaged... get any pictures before she went down?

[Captain_MacNamara]

Unfortunately, no. I forgot to grab not only the mainmast, but the camera as well.

Went back out to the lake today, which has calmed down considerably. After about 45 minutes of bailing, I had her floating again, and got her dragged ashore. There was a pint-sized White Crappie in the boat as well.

She's pretty banged up, but she still floats. With our maiden voyage of the unfinished boat, we figured out what all needs to be added to her not only for aesthetics, but to make her more stable as well. Hopefully, we'll have her back out for a second run in a month or so.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Captain_MacNamara

[Joe Pyrat]

Great story. Sounds like you came off betterin' Captain Bellamy and you may now have a lake that can boast having the wreck of a pirate ship.

Good luck with the salvaging, hope you get back to sea in short order.

[Captain_MacNamara]

Got her patched back together, though nowhere near finished. Took her out again today:

We've christened her the 'Sea Myst'.

[Captain_MacNamara]

Well, the 'Sea Myst' is going to have to be drydocked for a while. While I did know that life jackets for every person aboard were required, I thought the most that would happen would be that lake patrol would issue a warning and order us ashore. So now, we're not only true sailors now, but true Pyrates as well, having broken laws on the water and all. Here's the tale...

The 'Sea Myst' started out as a very old galvanized steel jonboat. Old enough, in fact, that it not only had no HIN (Hull Identification Number), it also had no serial number. No records, no title, nothing. And it's still not registered, as I was under the impression that vessels under 16 feet in length weren't required to BE registered. Yes, I knew we were pushing it with no life jackets, but all of us are excellent swimmers, and have never worn life jackets while boating... had them on hand, yes, bet never relied on them, rather relying on experience and common sense. We had raised the mast, and launched her from a small cove near the boat dock... then we rowed her over to the pier and tied her off for a while while we ate lunch. Lake patrol came by and looked at us and the boat, but said nothing, so I figured we were in the clear. For the record, yes I know. We should have life jackets. However, that's a pretty hefty investment all at once, for 5 or so PFD's that will not be used, as we are all excellent swimmers... not to mention the clutter in the boat of 4 or 5 life jackets. So of course, we had no life jackets aboard. We did, however, draw up a bill of sale for transfer of ownership of the boat to my sister, buying us a 30 day window just in case... I guess you could say a modern version of a forged Letter of Marque. There still wasn't much wind yesterday, so we mainly rowed the 'Sea Myst' out. She caught a light breeze a couple of times and took off, but the wind kept changing direction. It just was not in the cards for us to sail across the lake that day. We got about 40 feet from the opposite shore of our cove, when lake patrol came up on our aft with lights a flashin'. I ordered the Crew to a stop, and we loosed the main and jib sheets, as we had just caught another breeze. I hailed the offensive vessel, who hailed back and tossed us a line to secure the boats together.

The first question he asked was "Where's your HIN?" I explained that she didn't have a HIN, nor a serial number, nor a Capacity Plate... That the hull was far older than any of us, and we had been working on the rest. I also begged the question as to the exemption status of vessels under 16' LOD. He said, and I quote "If you have a one person kyak, it has to be registered. Anything that is going to be 50 feet or more from shore has to be registered. If you are in an inner tube, and you're more than 50 feet from shore, you are considered a vessel and have to be registered." At that point, I ordered my Quartermaster to retrieve the "Bill of Sale", as I could see where this was going. I also had her retrieve my ID, so he could plainly see that I was the person listed as the new owner of the vessel. It was obvious that he was rather irritated by the sudden appearance of the "Bill of Sale". He proclaimed that he could draw one of those up in his patrol car, that it didn't mean anything... He was just blowing off steam, however, because he was unable to fine us the more expensive fine for not having a valid HIN/Registration. He also assumed we didn't have a signaling device, any methods of bailing the bilge, etc. we pulled out the ship's bell, our Bos'n had her pipe, we pointed out the bailing buckets, we showed him the emergency signal light, and explained that we did in fact have navigation lights, but they weren't up because it was broad daylight. The fact that we had the other required equipment seemed to agitate him even more. We also had one of our signal cannons mounted to the bowsprit... And the bloody redcoat claimed we were "overloaded". He said we only had 6 inches of freeboard, which we had a good foot. He claimed that we should have 3 feet of freeboard, which was asinine since her sides are only 2 feet deep. Then he finally asked who was the "operator". I told him I was the Captain, and he then asked me about the life jackets... Now we *did* have 3 life jackets, (2 of them were for kids, 1 for an adult), but they had been forgotten in the car. He tried to claim that we were required to be wearing life jackets (Which is an utter load of bollux, I looked it up later and the law is that you must have one aboard for every person, but only those under a certain age had to actually wear them), and that if he fined us for that, it would be a thousand dollars right there for just the lack of life jackets. I once again re-iterated that I was the Captain, and that I should have made sure the life jackets were not "forgotten". So he only fined me, which is what I was going for once it was apparent that we were screwed.

Now... I understand that it's my fault. I understand that I tempted fate by not having life jackets. However, I still feel slighted that he wrote a ticket on the first offense rather than issuing a warning... and to add insult to injury, he went and pulled over an inflatable raft that had 6 people on it, no life jackets, etc, and all he did to them was order them back to shore. Of course, the difference was that the raft had 6 scantily-clad young women aboard. So yes, I will be fighting this in court. Most likely in the same garb I was wearing on the lake. :angry:

And well... since all boats require registration, life jackets, and a plethora of other "safety" equipment, I am going to hunt down the biggest thing I can afford and just build the damned 'Iron Lotus' herself out of it. Hopefully, a 22 foot or larger sailboat hull.

[Captain Jim]

The moral of the story, mate, is that you need more scantily clad wenches aboard.