Goodbye, Old Tate

Polyurethane adhesives are the bane of the boatowner’s existence.  They are unpleasant and difficult to work with, but absolutely essential and highly effective.  Kind of like colonoscopy prep or Miss Palermo in fourth grade.

They dispense from a tube, which is often poorly made.  They will not come out of that tube reliably in less-than-tropical temperatures.  They laugh at your standard $7.99 hardware store caulking gun.  A tube or gun failure is a nightmare — throw out your clothes, throw out your tools, soak your boat in mineral spirits, and there will still be spots left years hence.

So when Tate from my favorite boatbuilding blog, Sundowner Sails Again, posted that he had obtained a heavy duty, reasonably-priced, great-working caulking gun, I rushed to the Web to get one.  It was everything he said it was: smooth, powerful, reliable, excellent in cool weather.

My wife gives everything a name:  cars, plants, the occasional chipmunk running across the yard.  I normally don’t, but I started to call my caulking gun “Tate”.  “Chilly today, but Tate will handle that seam compound.”  “Lots of laminating to do, but Tate should keep my hands from cramping up.”

But with furlongs, kilometers and miles of fileting and gluing facing me on Tardis, even Tate has had to face the perils of new technology.  I just purchased a Milwaukee Tool power caulking gun that pushes out the epoxy in a beautiful, even bead at the push of a button.  It has speeds from 1 to 6, and I have yet to get past 2.

But don’t worry about Tate — he is merely being reassigned for new duty at the Connecticut River Museum Boatbuilding Workshop, where a new generation of boatbuilders will experience his heavy-duty power.

So what will I call this new, high-energy, super-efficient little number?  How about…..Dani.