latest from the shop.....

[garland reese]

I know this is not technically a wood boat, but it is a nice example of the unfortunate evolution of rowing shells. Since I am the Equipment guy for our rowing club, I had the pleasure of overseeing and working with some very special folks to get this done

We got this and another boat for $500 each (not bad for shells......they are not easy to find), badly in need of refurbishment. The second boat is still in the shop. It is/was much the same, but with some broken frames and generally a much rougher project. After a good bit of repair work, it is coming along and not looking too bad. I am contemplating another coat or two of varnish on the outside saxboards, just to try and smooth a few more blemishes. The "Spirit" is a quad/four+. The other boat I'm working on is a straight quad sculling shell. Both boat are older Schoenbrods, 'glass hulls, wood framing, and soft decks.
There were a couple of folks who saw this project through, start to finish, that I could not have done without.

Before


The boat was formerly known as "Titanic" There is a story behind the choice of name that is on her hull. I'm quite sure that I either amused or completely enraged all the mystics of the seas in the christening of this boat, but hey, you only go 'round once, right. The strange font is the Cherokee alphabet spelling of "Spirit Within" Phoenetically, it is something like "adonTchuh hawinidetlah"

After



[ 05-26-2003, 12:02 AM: Message edited by: garland reese ]

[Tom Lathrop]

Looks great to me Garland and I see some nice woodwork too. Just tell eveyone that its cold molded with a crinkly inside paint job.

[Wild Dingo]

Looks okay all the way down here to mate!!!

[garland reese]

Thanks guys!,
The hull was actually in fair shape. Just very dirty and the gelcoat is dreadfully thin (starts out that way on racing shells though). Most of the work involved stripping, sanding and varnishing. Re-doing the decks was a new and even pleasant experience for me.
The name on the outside is sort of a compromise. I wanted to name the boat after the lass who did so much work on her. She was there nearly every time the shop doors were open. A truly amazing volunteer. The board of directors nixed my name. But the boat knows her true identity. The "Spirit Within" moniker is more a greeting.....like "excuse me, Miss....." . She then responds "Yes, Miss....... that's me". Yep, there truly is a spirit within this old boat. The Cherokee portion stems from Oklahoma being Indian country and that a new Native American Heritage Center will eventually be our down river neighbor. My father's background was Cherokee.

Hey Tom, I have been varnishing a real cold-molded double lately. I wish they would never have gone away from wood. The wood boats are stunning. The old boat had some checking here and there, and a very bad repair job on her keeline ('glass tape, unfaired........what a mess). I tried to clean her up a bit. The washbox needs repair and her soft decks are bad, but she is a borrowed boat. So I can't justify total refurb. But I refuse to give her back in her present state. She'll at least be a bit better off than when we got her.

[blaydone]

Nice work, Garland. The wood looks great. Interesting riggers on her.

[Leon m]

Nice job Garland !
But next time you should tell the crew
to wait till the varnish is dry to go rowing,
or there shoes may get stuck to the boat.

[nedL]

Beautiful work Garland! I would have loved to give a quad a try (or better yet an octet ) They are amazing to watch! Oh well, eights are fun too. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[rbgarr]

Nice satisfying work, isn't it, Garland? Two years ago I boought a '75 Coffey racing single that had wood framing, etc., but a Kevlar hullskin.

I redid a good bit of her, including the paint job, and named her Zihuatenejo after the West Mexico harbor. That's the place the Andy Dufresne character dreams about and ends up at in the 'Shawshank Redemption' movie.

It's funny how rowing shells so often get christened with such long names. It probably comes from a tradition of the boats being named after rich donors: Henry Binghamton Wigglesworth IV, or some such! The long names look okay anyway.

I stored my single at a local boat club .. from where she suddenly and frustratingly disappeared last winter. GRRR

[ 05-27-2003, 11:32 AM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Conard]

Sorry to hear about your single being stolen, rbgarr. If you're looking to replace it, check out www.rowableclassics.com . I bought a wooden racing single from them last summer at their place in Thomaston, ME. At the time, they had some really nice boats.

[rbgarr]

No, I'm not looking to replace the single, but that's interesting that Rowableclassics is in Thomaston. I didn't know that they were there. I saw some shells being refinished there at the Epifanes 'store/shed'. Was that the place?

[Billy Bones]

Originally posted by rbgarr:
...and named her Zihuatenejo after the West Mexico harbor. That's the place the Andy Dufresne character dreams about and ends up at in the 'Shawshank Redemption' movie.

...I hasten to add that the scenes at the end of the movie were actually filmed on St. Croix. The GTO he drives (on the south shore, on the wrong side of the road) belongs to my neighbor. Tim Robbins was seated at the next table one evening when I went out to dinner. We're not generally starstruck, but this is a small island! I love the movie and recently bought it.

Sorry to hear of the theft!

[Billy Bones]

Nice work, Garland!

[rbgarr]

Thanks for pointing out the St. Croix connection to the movie.

Have you ridden any of the wave-piercing power catamaran boats that are (were?) built down there? They sound intriguing, and I hear that there's consideration being given to that design for re-establishing ferry service from Portland, Maine to seacoast towns Downeast for making connections to the Amtrak.

I named the single Zihuatenejo because it's about five million meters from Maine via interstate and Mexican highways. The image of Morgan Freeman riding the buses all that way really caught my fancy, so I've set a goal of rowing the equivalent distance on my rowing machine, and then rewarding myself with a visit there. My sister has been there from her home in Arizona and says it's a great place.

Since Thanksgiving, I've 'rowed' about 10% of the distance: 300+ miles, or Boothbay Harbor, Maine to the lower Connecticut shoreline. I'm on track to go visit Mexico in five years.

Wish me luck.

[ 05-27-2003, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[garland reese]

G'luck Rbgarr!!!

Thanks for all the compliments, but I really was mostly just an advisor on this one. I did do some repairwork and fitting of the soft decks (and a coat or 2 of varnish), but the bulk of the work came from a handful of volunteers; one imparticular, whom, after the first project leader left, pretty much took over as the inspirational leader and saw the job through; she never missed a night of varnish and never shyed away from the messy jobs. Thanks Pam! And Jim, he was there most every night too, working quietly to the end.
Anyway, the boat turned out nice, is a nice addition to our learn-to-row fleet and even took a third place in a recent "open" quad sprint event (even with me sitting 3 seat!!!). Who says miracles don't happen!!!

I hope to get the other one outta the shop soon. It has taken more work to get in shape. Not too many folks are coming out to help, as rowing season progresses, but then again, alot of the work has been fitting in repair pieces and such. The bow was broken off a few inches back, the stern in bad shape, frames cracked, old half-hearted attempts at repairs, etc. Pam and I placed the last coat of varnish on a few weeks ago (she's awesome with the inside framework!!). The hull is rough and still has some repairwork, then we roll her and begin re-fitting the hardware and install the soft decks, and then goes another round of "what do we name this one"...........I'm staying out of it this time.

[ 05-27-2003, 11:34 PM: Message edited by: garland reese ]

[Conard]

Yes, rbgarr, it's at the Epiphanes warehouse, formerly Morse's yard we were told by the Epipanes people.