One of our visitors asked me the other day if my friends thought I was crazy for building this boat. I told her “No. Those people are not friends.” Friends are the people who support your dreams. Avoid the others. You don’t want worry, fear, doubt and pessimism around. Amazing people, will be drawn to amazing projects, and Seeker has some amazing crew. Find your friends among those people.
Craig Durkin
Cecil Mozingo
Andrew Quitmeyer
Many thanks to everyone that worked on this one. And there where a lot of hands involved in this one. Dan, Andrew, Craig, Bart, Ron, Tony, Jack, and a few more I am likely forgetting. And this also is our last weekend working outside. The ROV is front and center and will hopefully be in the water by September. After that we hope it will be much cooler and we will be back to working steel on the boat. And thanks to all our crew members and supports. Remember to visit our Junk Store. Nothing makes Betsy happier than packing up a mug or T-shirt.
250 pounds, and it will float.
Bart Robinson
Ronald Brewer
Bart and Ron installing the hatch in the forward bulkhead.
Adding rungs to the gangway.
Tony and I making the welds look pretty.
Tony Cavazos, McAllen Texas
Ron Brewer, West Monroe, Louisiana
Many thanks to Gray Crosby for the artwork.
YouTuber Nick Richards of Renegade Trucker and Renegade Sailing stopped in last weekend and we talked about hauling the boat. Turns out that Oklahoma is not third world with trucking permits. You can go online 24/7 and get one. It did give us a surprising route. Certainly not the most direct path. Betsy and I closely measured the boat at 16 feet to the top of the bulwarks. The max is 18 feet, so if we build a custom trailer we should be able to clear all the obstacles.
ODOT Route for 17 feet high.
Matt Stellpflug was in for the weekend from Minneapolis Minnesota. My back was acting up so I took a back seat and let Matt and Bart do the lion’s share of work on tacking together our portlights. Matt also got a 1/12th scale model of Seeker’s deck completed. We will use that to help design the sails and layout the sail rigging.
This week we welcome Andrew and Craig from Atlanta Georgia. With Jack and Bart who are also planing on working that will make five of us in the sweltering summer heat. We’ll hopefully knock out the portlights and get a good start on the gangway. Then we are done with the boat till fall. And instead I’ll be in the shop with the AC on high working to get the ROV into the water.
Many thanks to everyone who is watching and supporting the work! –Doug
We want to add portlights or portholes to the cabin tops. I had a design for a wedge-shaped unit that is open at the top when the wedge is one way and then closed when the wedge is turned around. It’s drawn showing it installed in a 3 foot, 1 meter, tall cabin tops, but we lowered our cabin tops to half that height. So now the opening would have to be right at the deck in order to clear the ceiling when you pull it out to turn it around. We can make it a wedge in the other direction as well, so it’s not as long at the bottom as it is across the top, but that makes for a strange shaped portlight.
We could buy portholes. We actually bought a bunch of them from India but what we received was not want we paid for and I do not want to repeat that experience. Does anyone need 19, aluminum portholes of various designs and conditions?
19 inch aluminum portholes
We could build 12 inch portholes, maybe even cast them. Devin Holland came up with the following design. It’s a starter, but like the wedge idea, it does not account for the 2 1/2″ wall thickness behind the steel.
What we are looking for is something that provides light to the interior, opens for ventilation, but it will need to be fitted with an insect screen. The cabin top leans inward so it has allow water to drain away. Must securely close. And needs to be centered at least half way above the deck.
Let us know your thoughts and ideas.
Junk sails are heavy, and we want a sail winch that is versatile. This idea is centered around a hydraulic hub motor, allowing the sail to be raised or lowered with a remote switch in the pilothouse or a secondary switch near the winch. I do not think the motor will hold the sail in position, so a solenoid will be needed to release the pawl so the sail can be lowered. I think the motor’s will need a valve that connect its two hydraulic lines together so it can freely spin. When that is done then the winch becomes a manual winch, and the break, ratchet and pawl, and hand wheel are used. The spool and sufficient space of all of the sail halyard, but it is an open spool and so the halyard can be removed and the winch used as a capstan. Or if the which has failed the halyard can relocated to another winch such as the capstan on the anchor winch. The eventual plan it to have similar winches controlling the sheets making it possible to sail the boat completely from the helm station, and provide greater control to the autopilot so that sails can be reefed automatically. You are welcome to download the DFX file: Sail_Winch_1.dxf , make modifications or leave comments below. More details can be found on the bottom of the Winches page. And thank you for your help. –Doug
Manual/Hydraulic Sail Winch
What a great week. We get a lot of people the will weld and grind on the boat. It’s understandable that we want to leave a mark there. But occasionally we get folk like Bill Wygant and Will Linna that will fix broken stuff, like the Cummins Killer Dowel Pin, your girl friends Jeep, the lawn mower, and a couple of leaver chain host that we broke pulling the mast into shape. Those are the kind of people you want for crew. Hard workers that will pick up anything that needs to be done without even needing to be asked. Seeker Crew Rock!
Their are many times while learning to build stuff that you look at it and just think there is no way in hell that it’s going to look like the image you had in your mind when you started. This was definitely one of those times. But trust in your abilities and work as a team and you will see it slowly come together. We now have a tapered mainmast and two awesome looking dragons to oversee the rest of the construction.
Many thanks to Seeker crew: Bart, Drew, Jesus, Bill, Jack, Jim, Su, Betsy and Keith Fenner for his video “The Mast of the Larinda”
We’ve had an fantastic Memorial Day weekend. It is not lost on us that none of this project would be possible if we did not live in a country with freedoms paid for by our service members. I just wish we did not have to remind so many people that we do live in a free country and not everything is regulated by a national homeowners association. ….yet. –Doug
Drew Atherton
Jim Squirrel
Jezabel
Drew Atherton
Jesus Flores
Bill Wygant
Me and Jack
Yes. It’s 3 inches out of true.
Bracing and Bending and Welding
Bart Robinson
Betsy