Getting started

It's been three months since the purchase of Marlin. Initial plans of getting going before graduation were OTBE - Over Taken By Events- of which the most significant was my inability to find a suitable workspace. After six weeks of fruitless searching Steve Kirby at Kirby Commercial found a place in Kerry Hill by the cemeteries. It features a 1 ton gantry, forty foot work bench, plenty of natural light and 20 foot overhead doors. But the best feature is my landlord, Eddie Silvia.

Just as location problems were squared away crunch time descended at IYRS. The two weeks leading up to Launch Day resulted in several 16 hour days. But things looked pretty good when Launch Day finally arrived...

L to R: JHH, Nele, Ryan, Raffelle, Will



At this point I took off for Chicago after landing a small but vital post-graduate job. It turned out to be a something of a fiasco: the vessel was in more desperate shape than the owner indicated, ravaged by rot in frames and planks; unable to accomplish much  I returned to Newport a week later, wiser and more wary. I resumed my efforts to equip the shop and get the place stocked with goodies from Jamestown Distributors(while my student discount was still in effect).  In the meantime my classmate Toby Green moved his Haven 12 1/2 into the space making me, in effect, a landlord for the first time!

This past weekend I spent some quality time at the Wooden Boat show in Mystic CT.  I checked in with the several dealers of antique and original hardware and introduced myself to some of the Herreshoff Museuem folks.

The Herreshoff Museum looked like they might come through with a trailer but those plans have fallen through.  So now I'm in a bit of a jam: buying a trailer isn't practical and it appears to be impossible to rent a proper flatbed. I'm hoping a solution will present itself that doesn't bust the budget.  SEE NEXT POST FOR AN UPDATE.

 

I've also made plans for the 2011 New England Wood Machinery Caravan for next Friday to collect my haul of used machinery.  So far we have 5 peices from 4 locations and, with more than 1200 still left in the budget, perhaps a couple other peices too.