Planking fitting done

The fitting of the bottom forward planking is finished. The final plank is ready to epoxy/screw in place for good then the excess will be trimmed but I am out of time tonight and will be out of town the first half of the week. So I will epoxy it in place when I get back.





My friend Scott Black stopped by on friday and we went to lunch but first he had to check up on the progress with the boat. You see Scott is responsible for getting me into this mess. We used to just happily play with radio controlled model airplanes and boats but about 4 years ago Scott emailed me a link to the Glen-L website http://www.glen-l.com/ and planted the seed of building a full size craft into my mind. I ohhhed and ahhhhed over the pictures on the site for years while in college. After seeing the Glen-L site I made it a lifetime goal to build a wood boat sometime before I die. I had no idea I would do so this soon but Scott and I were at lunch one day this past winter and Scott was talking about how he had all these pojects like the Glen-L boats the he wants to do but life and 3 kids tend to get in the way. I too wanted to see Scott build one because his r/c models are works of art and I know he could build a stunning boat with his craftsmanship. It was clear that Scott would not be building one soon with his large, active family and all his other interests. I started looking at my life and said, "Its now or 25 years from now"-- I have the garage space, the spare time, the supportive wife and hopefully enough funds. I ordered the plans for the Zip soon after that lunch and its all Scott's fault! Thats my story and I'm sticking to it. Scott has his own great website for all types of hobbies especially r/c. You can visit it here http://www.indyhobbies.com/

Here is a picture Scott took of me and the Zip before lunch friday. BTW, thanks for lunch Scott but I called you so youre supposed to let me buy!

Today I went by a boat salvage yard here in Indianapolis. "Indy Boat Salvage". The place has been here 35 years and so has the manager because he is the only guy that knows how to find the parts that have accumulated among the place, its not exactly organized nor is any salvage yard I have ever been to. Anyway, I keep meaning to stop by but never do, today I did. The place is huge, maybe 8 acres. I looked at some old motors, some steering wheels, some trailers and some hardware.

I came home from the salvage yard with this. A vintage bow handle for 10$. I'll get it re-chromed when I get the windshield brackets I just ordered chromed. It goes on the very front of the deck of the boat and the handle is used to help pull the boat on the trailer or manuever the boat around when beached, etc. If I end up not using it I'll sell it on ebay or give it away at next years "Gathering"

The salvage yard was fun, I want to go back soon and rummage around some more and see what else I can turn up.