It’s been three years since I’ve hauled the Katahdin so it’s time again. I preferred to haul in Victoria where it’s $0.70 on the dollar and lumber is available. Problem was that the rudder got shoved over hard and locked after a move in the repair yard under the Ballard Bridge so I couldn’t install the quadrant (a steering thingie) and drive under my own power. So I hauled it down to Pac Fish and got fleeced again……
The second reason I needed to haul was to repair the “hood-ends” or short narrow planks at the very stern section. These got pummeled about when the stern-counter was rebuilt (the gray rim here). This was a source of seepage so needed to be attended to. This was in my budget, but not what was to follow:
Immediately after haulout–about 9am here–and the shipyard boys already tampered with the rudder–so now I could not discover the source of the damage. This took two guys, two hours to free up and I could now, at least, move the rudder by hand.
This rudder is almost 9′ tall and 3′ wide with a 6″ X 1″ folded rudder-shoe. Skookum!
This is the Quadrant, now bolted up with the hydraulic ram spanning plates laid out. These spans tie the two deck beams together and spread out the force–140 tons of boat turned by a 27 square foot rudder with 1300 lbs. of hydraulic force. In rough seas, this needs to be right.
There is the whole system, rudder aligned.
We begin to remove the obvious planks–here #3 and #4 Portside. You’re looking back in history almost 125 years. Here’s what the boat looked like when it was built on the Duwamish Waterway:
Note that planks run the full length of almost 80′–no butts. Today, I am plagued with butts–but that’s another blog. However, this boat, over the years has been replanked but only the damaged/worn planks are removed and lumber isn’t available in these length, so Katahdin has slowly been reduced to parquet style planking.
Here are Heckman, H Henniger and M. Hanson–the builder of the boat. His son H. K. Hanson continued this tradition and Hanson boats still exists today in Everett Washington.
Starboard #1 (shear) and #4 removed. Now–here is where the shipyard got into trouble. They promised to launch me within two weeks–a maximum time to keep an old wooden boat out of the water–especially in the August sun. But they got greedy. They sidetracked the next boat to another lift and took these planks out and then stalled the project and called in all the unemployed shipwrights–all unionized and began to draw out the project. They showed up at 5:30am and left at 1:30am and charged out a full 8 hours. Except to say, they worked only about three or four hours of actual hand-on work. The unions give them 1/2 hour “administrative” time first thing in the morning. Then two breaks of 15 minutes each and a lunch hour–all billed to me. I began to get suspicious so attended the boatyard at all hours and of course, I recorded everything on time-stamped film.
You cannot find 80′ Douglas Fir planks anymore–well, not legally. The American way today is to plunder the mahogany rainforests of Central Africa, and ship these 40′ long monstrous planks around the world with great carbon footprint. This came from Edensaw Lumber company who stole lumber from the Katahdin 30 years ago and whom I took to court. They also defrauded the Virginia V Foundation (where I sat on their board of directors). They also switched lumber on the Virginia V contract and were fined by the state for fraudulent business practices. The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Spiling a plank–that is making a pattern of so it fits like a jigsaw puzzle back into place. I will say here that these fellows, in spite of their programmed sloth, did make the planks fit well. But at $100/hour, who needs dilettante carpenters.
After about a week, this Starboard #4 is nicely in place….except it was later removed…..read on.
Here’s where things start to go south–this plank took a week to make–the “rule of thumb” is: One man/one day/one plank–and that is for a nominal 20′ plank. This is a tiny version at only 10′. This is how “union” laborers stretch out a job (and damage a boat)……one week for a 10′ plank, two guys at $100/hour.
The lead shipwright informed me two steelworkers/welders would need two hours to install this (prefab) fence so they could brace agains it. Hours billed were over 10 times this.
Here plank is installed but you can now see the the beginning of the problems. Drying out of the planks. We’re now in week three.
The plank beyond the new one is only 8′ long–now why didn’t they remove this and put in one 18′ plank? Stupidity and greed.
Here you can see that 8′ plank (butt is just to the right edge of the photo). When I called this out to the manager (who hadn’t visited the vessel in two weeks), the lead shipwright got into my face and trapped me between the scaffolding and the boat–side-stepping as I tried to escape. This does not make the customer happy. I asked the yard manager to remove this oaf from the project.
Within 24 hours two remaining shipwrights replaced this plank, extending it a full 17’3″–a yardstick of efficiency I’ll use when we argue about the total bill.
Rule of thumb–you bottom paint a boat within 48 hours of launch. Meanwhile, Portside repairs continue.
First a short frame “futtock” is replaced and a short “plank.”
Then the longest plank is fitted. This was just less than 15′.
Coning together.
Lots of cussing too.
Keeping the boat out of water longer than a few weeks begins to take its toll.
B
Seams begin to open up.
Back to the Starboard side, and I get concerned and bring down the boatyard manager. Everyone starts yelling and finally the head shipwright says he’ll add another 8′ shortie to this mess. No, I reply, the whole plank needs to be replaced–so we’re up to 17’3″. And I get boxed in under the boat and screamed at. I inform the boss that this is tantamount to assault.
Here is a more complete view (the plank lower down will be replaced at the next haulout).
Finally, in frustration and a month later, I must leave town. The shipwrights are bragging that they have to hand-carve each plug to fill the fastening holes as they are “odd-sized.” This is a three hour job (80 plugs) but with obsequious smiles, they take three days. The boat is launched without my final inspection as I’m driving to Wyoming on business.
Meanwhile, for this “supposed” $25,000 job, I’m handed a bill for…….$84,836.04. Such a deal……so it’s off to court again. I offer to negotiate and they don’t return phone calls. Finally, I send them a check for $26,000 which is more than they deserve and give them 30 days to cash it–paid in full. Thirty days was December 7–Pearl Harbor Day and they didn’t cash it. I hate thieves.