Shanty Boat 2015

Shanty Boat Project
Our current boat project is building a shanty boat that we can use as a combination travel trailer/house boat. This blog chronicles the boat build from start to finish. Scroll down for the most recent updates, including updated interior photos at the bottom of this posting.

Here is the most recent picture:

Continue to scroll down for start to finish updates:

It took a lot of beer to sketch out the shanty boat.

This is the rough sketch.  It will have a full size bed on one side, a 2-burner propane stove with oven, a separate room with a door for the Nature's Head composting toilet, 2 seats up forward in the steering compartment, and front and back porches.  It is basically 24 ft. x 8 ft. wide.  Sort of an elaborate "Duck."

The first of many shopping trips. 

Gus enjoyed helping Chris get things lined up for cutting.

Laying it out in the drive way. That is not our car.

Coming along nicely, upside down, bulkheads in place.

No complaints from the neighbors, so far.

We bought an old galvanized 2 axle trailer for $250 . It came with an old, junk power boat on it . We were able to salvage the steering, shifter, fuel tanks and down rigger mounts, also we found a small fortress anchor amongst the debris in the cockpit. Chris put all new tires and wheels on it.  As soon as we take the junked power boat to the dump, we will have the trailer available for the shanty boat.

February 2015: 

Another load of plywood:

 I wish we had bought one of these a long time ago -- a sticky pump!
Ordered it from Duckworks along with a few gallons of epoxy, thinner, fiberglass, and a few other things.

Fixin' to get busy putting on the bottom. Those long boards are laying up there for no particular reason.

Most of the bottom on, getting ready to finish bow. Still no complaints from the neighbors although I have perceived a few dark looks.

The stove arrived -- Camp Chef 2burner stove with oven.  We have this same stove on Plover. We like it so much that we bought the same stove for the shanty boat.

Miscellaneous:

Sherpa worked hard while we were cruising the San Juans.

We'll have her looking brand new again soon.

Gus keeps a sharp lookout, even while living on land, while Major snoozes in his bed.

Pool time!

 We picked up a 30 HP outboard for lots of power:



Getting the bottom on (boat is upside down). The areas you see will be filled with flotation material.

Inside Upside Down -- Entrance to bathroom and shelves.

I don't know what happened to the drought.



It kept raining so we bought this carport type thing to keep the rain off without having to cover/uncover with a tarp all the time.  Aren't you glad you don't live next door to us?

The trailer frame is coming along nicely. Chris did all the welding himself which attracted a neighbor who sent over a chair to be mended. 

Rollover Day:

We invited family over for Easter Dinner and tricked them into helping us get the boat rolled over.

Many thanks to Fran Tomsett, Donna Jourdan, Al Alviso, Edrick Alviso, and Suzi Alviso for helping with the roll.

Chris cut out and attached these "rockers" to the side of the boat to assist in rolling:



 Then he started jacking up the boat and putting concrete blocks under it.

We held the boat from the opposite side while he used a cable tied to our truck to pull the boat up into position.  Note the bean bag chairs placed in the landing zone.  I don't believe Chris put those there for me to sit on.

You can see the freshly applied bottom paint (Trinidad antifouling paint).  I only painted the very bottom as the bow and stern still need some work before the paint goes on.





The time span between this picture:

and this one:

occurred in about 3/10 of a second.  Thankfully, the bean bag chairs performed well.

On the driveway, rotated around, and putting the carport back up.

Bulkheads going on, back door framed:

The boat is getting taller so we had to put the carport up a little higher.  Chris made these little stands which worked out quite well until a big storm blew in.  The carport stayed up, however, and we can put it back on the stands when the weather clears.

Gus wants us to hurry up and get finished so we can get back out on the water.

Sides going on. Working after dark.  The neighbors have ceased speaking to us and refuse to make eye contact.



Gus spends his days at anchor while we work on the shanty.

 Looking in through the back door.

 Major and Gus want to know when this silly project is going to end.

Checking out the final piece of the roof.

 

It's been a few weeks since I last posted pictures. I've done lots of painting and Chris has finished out the wheelhouse, the transom,  and constructed the window frames and doors.

 

 

 

 

It seems like the painting will never end. Thankfully, our daughter, Meridith, is here for a few weeks and niece, Melina, has been helping out, as well.

 

Melina painted on the boat's name:

She did a great job.

 

Our next task was to get Scruffy loaded onto the trailer.

We spent 5 hours getting the boat jacked up and on the trailer.  As with everything we do, it was an adventure.  Our first attempt resulted in 2 broken jacks.  Chris went to Northern Tool and got 2 bigger jacks. Our son, James, came over and he and Chris lifted the boat inch by inch while Meridith and I inserted concrete blocks under it. When it was finally high enough, Chris and James pushed the trailer under it. Success was celebrated with ribs and beer!

 

Our first oyster reef.   Just a small crunch.

Nothing damaged except 2 jacks, 2 furniture dollies, and a broken concrete block.

 

A few inches higher.

Levitating:

Almost there.

Success!

Reward for all the hard work:

 

Windows going on, frames to be added at a later date.

 

 

Rudder

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging and testing the outboard

 

Of course, we didn't get Scruffy finished before the TX200, so we launched and went anyway.

 

Here are a few photos of the interior:

 

Steering wheel

 

  

Steering station

 

  

 





 

 

Now that we're back, it's time to get ready for the PlyWooden Boat Festival. 

Maybe we'll have a steering wheel by then.

And the shower finished.

 

 

Redfish caught at Army Hole by James Tomsett.

 

 

 

After the TX200, we didn't do much during the hot months of July and August. However, the Port Aransas PlyWooden Boat Festival was coming up so we finally got around to finishing the interior.  Having a steering wheel has come in handy.

 

 



Our next trip will be to Bayou Teche for their wooden boat festival in April.



Cruising on Plover -- Shake Down Cruise to Ingleside, Texas

We are presently at the Bahia Marina in Ingleside after an extended trip down the coast from Kemah. Our original plan was to get to Bahia Marina in Ingleside by Saturday, May 11, because we needed to be in San Antonio on Monday, May 13, for THE BIG GRADUATION EVENT OF JAMES TOMSETT. We didn't get away from Kemah until the morning of May 9, after spending the night tied up at The Turtle Club in Seabrook. Yes, we spent the night tied up at a bar. Oddly, this was not to be the first night we tied up at a bar, but I digress.  Here is a picture of us as we left Kemah:

Our first stop was Teacup Anchorage just outside Galveston Yacht Basin. It turned out to be a nice anchorage but did get a bit rolly in the morning when the work boats started traveling by. We went to the fuel dock and topped off with diesel and then headed for the ICW to Freeport. We still had things that needed to be done to the boat before we could take her offshore, such as wiring the running lights and installing cleats for securing the seat covers. Our plan was to take the ICW to Freeport and then go offshore to Port Aransas.

After clearing the Galveston Causeway, we were hit by a major thunderstorm and took refuge in Offats Bayou. While there, we discovered one of our batteries was dead, so a hike to Auto Zone ensued and Chris packed the battery back to the boat. We got back on the ICW at 4 p.m. and I promptly ran us hard aground. We spent the next 2 hours kedging and leaning and poling, and were finally assisted by a kind hearted power boater. How embarrassing for me. That was  not the only time we ran aground that night, though, so I felt better about it as the night wore on. We came to the conclusion that dodging tugboats and barges on the ICW at night, with no moon, and no spotlight, is not a good idea and about 1 a.m. we pulled over and set the anchor to await daylight.

I had asked Chris one time what he thought the weakest link on our boat was. He couldn't come up with anything but, after thinking about it, I decided it was human error. Our Plover is strong and seaworthy but if we mess up and do something dumb, she may not be able to take care of us. So, that morning on the ICW, I told Chris, "We're making the most common mistake sailors make -- we're trying to get somewhere according to a deadline rather than making sure we have a safe passage. We need to forget about trying to get to Ingleside and just take it slow from here on out." And that is exactly what we did. We secured a slip at Freeport Municipal Marina and went to San Antonio for Jimi's graduation and spent a few days visiting with family.

After returning to Freeport, we continued down the ICW, stopping for the night at Sting Rae's bar and grill in Sargent. Although the bar was closed, Rae was very friendly and invited us to spend the night in a slip there and gave us the code to her WiFi. A guy in a pickup came by to admire the boat and gave Chris a ride to a convenience store to get us some ice. It turned out that the guy was Major's vet, Gordon, from Pet Care Express, in Houston. What a small world we live in !!

We then traveled 12 miles to the San Bernard River where we anchored and walked over to the beach on the Gulf side of the island. The San Bernard River was an excellent anchorage and we had a very nice time there although we didn't catch many fish. I caught a few gaff top catfish which we didn't keep as they were a little on the small side. Major had a great time at the beach. I think he ran nonstop for at least 2 hours and rolled in every dead smelling thing he could find.

The next day we exited the ICW at Matagorda on the Colorado River. The following is an email I sent to my parents about the trip:

Subject: Arrived Port Aransas
Sent: Sat, May 25, 2013 10:58 a.m.

Hi. We left Matagorda about 9 a.m. to go to Port Aransas offshore, a distance of about 80 miles. NOAA said winds 10-15 and seas 2-3 feet which is how the day started. We worked our way out about 10 miles offshore and the seas/wind increased throughout the day. We were under stay sail, full main, and mizzen. Chris took a nap from about 4-6 pm and then we had sausage jerky and water for dinner as it was too rough to cook. After dinner, I got about a one hour nap but it was difficult to sleep because of the conditions. We had 5 foot waves that were cresting which was interesting when they crested under the boat. We reefed the main and still maintained about 4-5 knots, eventually taking down the main, then the mizzen, running under stay sail alone. The seas were confused so we had these big rollers in one direction and then 2-3 ft. waves at another angle. This caused side to side rolling as well as front to back. It was uncomfortable but no one got sea sick and we didn't take any water over the bow. Major was scared and became very quiet, sticking close to us, and wouldn't eat or drink anything. As we neared Port A, we had difficulty identifying some lights. They looked like ships but we thought they might be really big drilling rigs. When the sun came up we saw they were anchored ships. The wind had died down to about 10 knots, so we got the reefed main and the mizzen up again, and shook the reef out of the main before long. A pod of dolphins played around the boat, leaping out of the water and one threw water at us with his tail. We arrived Port Aransas about 11:30 a.m. and had an easy entrance into the jetties. We had worried about the big rollers and the small entrance so we had put Major down below in case anything crazy happened. I looked below to check on him and caught him eating the rest of our sausage jerky. So much for sea sickness. All in all it was a good shake-down cruise. We towed the dinghy behind us and only got about 2 cups of water in it. The boat performed beautifully and took good care of us. We wore the safety harnesses you gave us the entire time and were clipped on to the mizzen mast when in the cockpit or to jacklines run bow to stern when on deck. We are here in Ingleside for a month while we take care of little projects.
Love,
Cathy

Cruising on Plover -- May 2013

They say that the definition of cruising is working on your boat in exotic locations. I'm not sure who "they" are but the definition holds true as we are working on a myriad of details that must be completed before we can leave Clear Lake for our first destination, Ingleside, Texas.

We left Hillman's Shipyard on Saturday, May 4, 2013, and headed to the home of our friends, Karen and Tony Townsend, who have a slip on a canal behind their house and had offered to let us use it for a few days while we got things squared away on the boat.

Gordo took this picture from the top of the mast. It's definitely a view of our boat that we won't usually get to see.

Hanging a pirate from the yard arms -- actually, that's Gordo Barcomb working on some splicing and changing out some blocks.

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The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (Part 9)

Launch Day !!

On Saturday, May 4, 2013, Plover began a new chapter in her life and we began a new chapter in ours.

John Goodman, Gordo Barcomb, Chantel Barcomb, and my parents, Jerry and Margaret Jourdan were in attendance.

The following pictures show the sequence of events from transporting her to Hillman's Shipyard to her first moments on the water.

As we left Hillman's, Gordo said, "From this point on, you're cruising!"

Leaving the boatyard:

On the road:

Chantel Barcomb was there to photograph the event:

Arrived safely at Hillman's Shipyard:

 

 Gordo Barcomb helped with rigging:

 

My parents, Jerry and Margaret Jourdan, were there for the big event.

 

 Into the sling:

 

 

 

Backing out of sling:

 

Heading to Clear Lake. I'm not sure what Major is thinking but I believe it has something to do with "Oh man, here we go again."