SV Seeker | Page 73 | SV Seeker: The Boat the Internet Built

An Excellent Day Boat Building.

DougMay 6, 2016Steel Boat

And Excellent day indeed. George drove in from Laramie Wyoming. And Bart is back and moving into the house next door. Together we got a lot of welding and grinding done. If the weather cooperates, then by tomorrow we should have all of the portholes fully welded. And Betsy is prepping the dragons for paint by next weekend. Now we are off for Bar-B-Q.

Solar Water Heater and Dragons and a Mission Statement

DougMay 4, 2016Foam Sculpture, Steel Boat

We were closed last weekend so we could get some house work done but we managed to cobble together a video and we did get the dragons both mounted, but the solar tank is still leaking. 🙂 Anyway! I rambled for a bit in this video about the kind of boat Seeker is, and is not. Combine that with listening to the book: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change” and I figure it’s time to start drafting a Mission Statement for Seeker. And a good mission statement is not crafted in the back cabin. It’s done on deck with the input of crew, because it is both skipper and crew that will have to live by this statement. Maybe we should call it our code.

Starting Ideas: Supporting learning, science, our oceans. Inspiring. Fun. Get it done attitude. Creative thinking. Low Cost. Provide assistance to those in need. A research vessel for the citizen scientist. Please add your suggestions in the comments.

Safety Third

DougApril 28, 2016Steel Boat

For all those thinking about helping on the boat. I want to share a warning from a concerned YouTuber.

Farlig66: “… You may well not give a fuck about what I think about your choices but I’m gonna tell you anyway for the greater good: Your attitude of “your safety is your responsibility not mine” is a big fucking mistake and may very well lead you down the path of shit and litigation down the line. Safety takes teamwork where everyone watches each other’s back. Safety is a culture where everyone thinks about the consequences of their own and others actions, it’s about thinking through “what can go wrong here” before proceeding with due caution and mitigations in place… I sincerely hope none of your helpers, now or in the future, get hurt by your attitude…”

SV Seeker

+Farlig66 I think if you look through a short list of civil court actions you will find the anything can lead to lawsuit. And I think that is because we have trained people to think that their safety is someone else’s responsibility. So now I hand you a cup of hot coffee and you proceed to take a quick swig from it, burning your tongue and dumping it in your lap and it’s my fault, because it was too hot. You take zero responsibility for your lack of awareness. If that is you then I don’t want you on my team. You need a nanny. And frankly there are people that come work with me that can do things that I can not do, and it is not my business to tell them to work at my safety level. Marc from Vienna Austria was holding onto the pilothouse roof with one hand and leaning out over the side helping me mount a dragon. I warned him that I did not want to stop work in order to take him to the hospital, and he demonstrated that he could actually swing easily from one hand. Turns out he practices parkour, so he was perfect for that job. When we start setting rules for what is safe, we ignore individual talents and as accidents continue we add more rules until everyone is forced to work as if they are a stupid, unaware, clutz. I do appreciate the conversation. It’s important that I can convey our safety policy so the mamma’s boys can safely avoid showing up to work. If they do show up because they recognize that they have been robbed of a meaningful existence by their nannies and they understand that it is up to them and them alone to decide what they will attempt. I really like it when I have folks look at me and say “No, that’s not something I feel like I can do.” That is an awesome team member. They looked after themselves first, and in doing so looked after their team as well. Because if you can’t hold that plate over my head while I tack it, I sure as hell would like to know that up front. 🙂

Cutting Portholes and a Match Plate

DougApril 27, 2016Casting, Portholes, Steel Boat

“THE ONLY WAY TO GET RID OF THE FEAR OF DOING SOMETHING IS TO GO OUT AND DO IT.”

― Susan Jeffers, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.

Big Boat Building Day

DougApril 22, 2016Steel Boat

Jack

Anson

Jakob from London England

Morgan from Juniper Florida

Peter from Orlando Florida

Anson from Gaithersburg Maryland

Porthole Frames, Plasma Cutting and Light Painting

DougApril 20, 2016Portholes, Steel Boat

I would like to say thank you for all of the support we are receiving. It may take a leap of faith to start something like this and to open it up to everybody on the internet, but it is working better than I ever expected. Yes, there are some shallow thinkers out there, but the overwhelming majority comments are helpful, upbeat and positive. Water may float the boat in the future, but your support is doing it now. And I can not say enough about our guest workers. We have obviously tapped into a common dream for folks like Jakob who is currently here from London England. He took his holiday and savings to fly across the Atlantic to run a grinder for days on end. I am grateful. –Doug

Porthole Frames — Welding Grinding and Fancy Photography

DougApril 17, 2016Portholes, Steel Boat

If there is a certification for grinding then Jakob could pass with his eyes closed. With his and Jacks help we got all ten porthole frames welded together and ground. The next step is to bolt the porthole rings on and weld the nuts onto the frame. So should the nuts and bolts be steel (39 cents each), stainless ($1.50 each) or bronze ($10 each). Frankly, bronze is a non starter.

And many thanks to Chris Faith for the awesome photo on the bottom of the post. It is a composite of several photos taken with long exposure times. See “light painting” for more.