Weekly Update
January 30, 2002 Late January - the Camillias are in bloom, the scallops are fat, and the Mardi Gras beads are glistening in big piles ready to be tossed. Cherokee thinks it's spring because of all this warm weather, and she's looking forward to the homestretch and splash down. Her deck is sanded, glassed, and prepared for teak.
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The pilot house sides have been fiberglassed, fared, and sanded. They are now permanently installed and awaiting the painting process. The mahogany windshield is glued in place.
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Norm, shown below behind the burlap curtains of the XXX Must Be Over Sixty to Enter paint room, is prepping bunk tops for the final paint.
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Welcome back master craftsman Tom Kirmeyer! How could he possibly match the pleasure of his recent experience in Hawaii? Return to the paradise of Gloucester and work on the Huckins, of course. Tom is shown below with the water-maker, which he is installing along with the air conditioner compressors in the equipment room.
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Bryan and Jeanette devised a clever way to both remove paint from stantions, and to recycle. The stantions were dipped in buckets full of old lacquer-thinner, and sealed with plastic bags so that the fumes could fully saturate. After an overnight soak and a brief meditation, the bags were removed. The oil-based paint fell off the metal in twisted curls, and removal was easy as you please. The stantions will now be lightly sand blasted and coated with two-part polyurethane paint.
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The toe rails, sanded last year and safely stowed away, were pulled out of storage and are getting ready to be installed around the perimeter of the boat. Some are shown below on the forward deck of the Cherokee.
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Fishdoc stopped by Luther Smith and Son Seafood and bumped into one of Carteret County's legendary boat builders - Tinker Wallace. Anyone familiar with Tinker's work thinks "giant" and "industrial" when they hear his name, as he builds the large steel trawlers that can be seen from the Beaufort bridge. "I started off as a steel worker in New Bern," the South River native explained. "But I always wanted to build trawlers." Tinker designs and builds with little more than the plans in his head. To name a few, he built the 95' Leslie and Charles, the 81' William H. Smith, 81' Helen W. Smith, and the 85' Kimberly and Kathryn. With a crew of five, it takes Tinker about 16 - 20 months to turn out these vessels. How does it feel to shoulder the responsibility of building ocean-goers that ply waters from Canada to Florida? Tinker, a small-town man of very few words, just shrugs and looks to the next project. Signing off for now, Barbara "Fish Doctor" Blake
