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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A day of boat stuff



Puttered around doing a bit of work on the boat. Discovered I'd glued a couple pieces of wood on the transom wrong. The top went on the bottom and the bottom on the top. Minor problem. Cutting it out and regluing new pieces shouldn't take all that long. It's the first component of the boat that I built -and I got it wrong. No biggie. Getting things a little wrong now and then is all part of building stuff. It's easy to not make mistakes. Just do nothing.

I actually made some progress on the side panels. Once the little transom problem is sorted out, I should be able to start assembling the components I've built. Looks like the rest of my work came out the way it was supposed to.

My lovely wife and I spent an awful long time tying to figure out what we are going to do about a dinghy for out other boat. So far we've gotten by just fine without one. Our Oday 19 only draws a foot of water with the keep retracted. On fresh water lakes, we bring it right up to shore. Down to Florida, the tides aren't all that big, so usually we just anchor within wading distance to shore. Places with high tides, mud bottoms, and cold water don't lend themselves to wading.

There was a roll up dinghy available at a local discount store. It was seriously price reduced. It took some research on-line to learn about it. Finally, I located some reviews, and they were all bad. A bargain isn't a bargain if the product is junk.

Plenty of people with small sailboats tow a dinghy. I'm not too keen on that, but it does solve the “where the heck do we store the dinghy” problem. There's no room on deck to stow a tender, so something that could be deflated and stored is tempting. I'm still thinking an inflatable double kayak would be ideal. It would work as a tender and be fun to paddle in the mangroves.

Of course, we could just spend money and stay at marinas all the time, but I'm allergic to spending money for nothing.

-Sixbears

11 comments:

  1. Inflatables might not be so good in 'gator country!

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  2. I had a Stearn Backcountry for a couple of years. Not as a tender, but to entice my wife on a small boat on the water! It did work, the thing was stable and a bit ponderous. I would have another inflatable canoe, but it would have to be a really good quality one. The Stearn was not bad just a bit floppy and the bottom was not stiff enough. The paddles that came with it were crap!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Joel. I never was impressed with the paddles that came with those things.

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  3. Just follow the "old fat man"'s blog. Every couple of years he throws his barely used kayak in the dumpster at the camp ground he's in at the time.

    Just sayin.

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    Replies
    1. He does do that from now and then, doesn't he? Then again, if it's no good for him . . .

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  4. We towed our Dink for seven years ! Once ya got one you'll understand the why. SECURITY for one. It becomes your car and the bigger boat is your house. Lets you anchor and do so much more exploring an area. Not to mention the spare engine aspect (not so much in your case tho)
    Many times the Dink made for much less walking for supplies too.

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    Replies
    1. I think we need one but the lovely wife is hesitant.

      Then again, she didn't think we needed a powerful spotlight until we couldn't find channel markers in the dark. Now we have one.

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  5. Why not just tow your canoe? You already have one so no new outlay of money would be needed.

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    Replies
    1. Tempting . . . but my canoe would need some modifications to tow well. It's an idea and an easy one to test on the lake.

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    2. Just make sure to use a bridle otherwise the canoe will tend to track off to the side during turns. A bridle will help to keep it in line.

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