The Tardis Project

July 24, 2017  Hours spent building to date:  3,854 I woke up this morning to pouring rain.  Perfect!  A great chance to evaluate my progress in eliminating deckhouse leaks. All boats have leaks.  Water will get into the tiniest cracks.  I found one over the stove, where water was getting under the outside trim and

July 13, 2017 Sorry for the delay in posting, but I had done nothing but work on the boat for months, and other obligations had built up — namely prepping and making kit parts for the annual Connecticut River Museum Boatbuilding Workshop, and getting our steamboat Osprey ready to launch now that all mechanical work

July 5, 2017  Hours spent building to date:  3,743 The WoodenBoat Show was as good as I had hoped it would be — fun, exhilarating and a great showcase for a boat that’s really pretty unique. The best part was having Mark Smaalders, her designer, and his partner Christine come all the way from the

June 27, 2017  Hours spent building to date:  3,737 Feverish preparations have been underway for the WoodenBoat Show, June 30-July 2 in Mystic, CT.  Just say “blog follower” and you have a pass for the Grand Tour! The boat came out of the water and onto the trailer Monday at Brown’s Boatyard across the river

June 19, 2017  Hours spent building to date:  3,790 There’s the old saying that a boat is never really finished, so after the excitement of the launch it was back to the shop to keep working away on all the details necessary before the WoodenBoat Show in two weeks; — Glued down the teak and

June 9, 2017   Hours spent building to date:  3,744 Took Ray out today for a short sea trial.  It was a good day for a run since the wind was up and we had 2-3 foot seas with whitecaps.  At about 10-11 knots, we were able to climb through very easily, and when we got caught between waves

June 8, 2017 I got a call this morning from Atlantic Outboard:  “Your boat is done.  We can put her in this afternoon.”  So out went the “new” plan.   It being a decent day and with everything running well, after a short shakedown and some instruction from the Atlantic folks, off John and I went from Westbrook to

June 6, 2017 I returned home from Ireland last week to find that the engine was on the boat, but not much else had been done.  Atlantic Outboard says they will definitely wrap up this week, but given the time this has taken after what seemed like such a promising start, I have been forced to come

May 18, 2017  Hours spent building to date:  3,741  Hours spent waiting for the damn engine:  504 Got back from John’s graduation Tuesday and headed down to the engine shop to get ready to drop the Tardis in: To find that not a lick of work had been done in all the time we’d been in

May 10, 2017  Hours spent building to date: 3,471 Great news from the WoodenBoat show:  The Chief Executive Coordinator of I Built It Myself Projects (Patty) has approved Tardis for the show:  on the trailer in all her glory.  Since most IBIM boats are canoes, daysailers or runabouts, this should be something to see.  The