14' Welded Aluminum Skiff

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Kevin Morin

Petty Officer 3rd Class
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Re: 14' Welded Aluminum Skiff

Ron, tinkering'one, thanks for the kind words, please accept mine in reply.

I'm sure you guys know that results like this skiff come from getting 'off the limb and 'killing' something'? "Just do it", "Go for it"..., "take no prisoners","The only thing you regret is what you don't try". I'm sure you know where I'm headed?

In my late 20's, a very long time ago, I decided that welded plate aluminum boats had to be something I could model with paper- both materials are flat sheet and don't bend, cold, too well into bicycle fenders [compound curved shapes].

A few nights after my day job as an oilfield welder, with scissors over the kitchen table, convinced me of this fact. I 'taped up' [Scotch Brand- not Miller or Lincoln welding wire] some skiff shapes and then realized that by laying a grid on my models and scaling up the paper to real size I could 'make' a full sized fishing skiff's hull panels; right off my models. If I could model it: I could 'built' it.

After learning that no one in my area knew enough more than I did after my fermented hops based, adult beverage fueled, training sessions and could offer a 'better' boat; I decided to borrow the money to "build one". It was pretty poorly formed, compared to this little 14'er I'm showing here, but that skiff is still in the water to this day; nearly forty years after the fact.

[Man! is it homely, I cringe when I see it which is so rare as to be a relief.]

I'd say that anyone with a serious will to learn could do as well with some practice.

Thanks again, for your kind remarks, I'll finish the next time I have some time at work to post.

In the mean time, since I'm home without the files on my work PC, I'll take some time to explain a detail that may have been noticed before: this skiff's cleats are shaped as 'keys'.

If you're not into tall tales or wandering stories from older geezers; then please just skip this next few paragraphs and I'll have some pictures up next.

Seldovia, Alaska is a tiny harbor town that until the 70's had no protection from a North wind -that would be a winter wind in that area. They used to move the town's boats up the Tidal Slough, immediately behind the rock redoubt on which the town is located, but that required a draw bridge.

Around the turn of the last century [1900 not Y2K] the log draw bridge was driven by a draw works that was in a tiny hut at the town end of the bridge. The KEY to that hut was kept in a cabin a few dozen feet from the foot of that bridge.

My wife purchased the bed and breakfast built on the site of the cabin where the bridge draw works KEY was kept; the name of the house is The Bridge Keeper's Inn. My wife made the KEY her logo symbol to match the historic legacy of the house's site.

The skiff is named 'The Little Key' and the cleats are 1/2" 6061 T6 round bar formed to approximate the KEY in her logo. I already said this was a 'chick skiff' so I hope you can appreciate the name and the cleats' symbol as deriving from my wife's B&B's name and the story behind that house?

They are just a bent round of bar butted to a rod of about 6" that has a block of 1/2" plate welded to the bar. All the sides and ends and joints were rounded and smoothed, all the way to buffing with 3M pads, and then the cleats were TIGged to their base plates.

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
 

Kevin Morin

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
78
14' Welded Aluminum Skiff ; nearly ready

14' Welded Aluminum Skiff ; nearly ready

We painted the skiff by etching with warmed phosphoric acid and rinsed with water, while the water was still wet on the newly "de-oxided" metal we covered the boat with Allodyne or which forms a chromium oxide layer instead of aluminum oxide layer.

The primer sticks to chrome oxide much better than aluminum and the top coats stick to primer. We didn't use a self etching primer because of the mixed sucess that system has shown in our area. We used the PPG product line of paints and I had a body fender shop shoot the topcoat we taped the skiff and tinfoiled the hand rails and delivered her to their shop with a marked waterline taped off . They hung a skirt and did all the yellow and green on top of a uniform primer.

Paint_2a-1.jpg


Bow on image of the boat painted but not bottom coated. Seats or locker covers are done of cedar from the big box home store and covered in enough epoxy to cast a sidewalk.

paint_1a.jpg


Here the overall look of the lines of the sheer, complimented I hope, by the hand rails and the spray rail give the final look , before adding the canopy. The gold streaks below the waterline/bootline are from the chrome conversion of the oxide layer, this is pretty common to form a somewhat uneven coloring of the etched metal.

Paint_3a.jpg


From the stern, one of the locker drain conduits are shown. A 1" fold-over cam acting plug fills this pipe from the inside wall of the well at the aft end of the locker.

Paint_4a.jpg


The other side from aft the transom.

Name_1a.jpg


Name and logo was made by a vinyl decal company from art files supplied. Gray Americoat 235 primer was hand brushed over the bottom areas in preparation for the EPaint antifoul paint.

Name_2a.jpg


Closer view of the name plate but one of the first decent views of the wrap around curved angle where the spray rail wraps the transom.

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
 

Kevin Morin

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
78
14' Welded Aluminum Skiff: In Her New Home Harbor

14' Welded Aluminum Skiff: In Her New Home Harbor

If anyone knows the waters of Kachemak Bay they'll realize I had a 15-16 mile trip to get the skiff to her new home. That was a long putt going 8 or 10 knots so we got a ride.

A friend has a welded aluminum landing craft, he lives in Seldovia and very kindly volunteered to come to the Homer Harbor, and load the 14'er onto his 30'er and haul it to Seldovia.

So one sunny afternoon, he and I loaded the Little Key on his deck through the bow door, rolled her off the highway trailer on plastic pipe rollers- Egyptian style. His 10 year old daughter piloted us back to Seldovia while Dad and I visited on the cargo deck and keep the skiff(s) and other cargo from banging around too much.

ArrivalinSeldoviaHarbor.jpg


Bow door is down, the skiff is the only green boat in this load. Pilot of the Retriever landing craft is to my right in shadow,holding the Key's painter, I'm on the bow door in a green shirt. Miss Pilot's Dad, the Skipper of the boat, is back to camera under the Little Key's canopy and Maggie the Ship's Dog patrols the dock.

LaunchedinHerHomeHarbor.jpg


Finally, the entire skiff is launched in her new home port. Notice the rather homely orange nylon tie straps holding the canopy on? The SS retractable ball pins for the sockets top and bottom each of the four canopy legs have not arrived to be included in this photo. So the straps were on for the entire first [fall] season; she wasn't launched until mid August last year.

BuilderRigsaBumper.jpg


No, this is not a picture of the Ancient Mariner, its the builder rigging a bumper before tying the to the harbor rail. Canvas top was not done well enough to suit the rigging shop that produced this cover. This one was returned and completely redone last winter and we only paid once!

KeyatDockSeldovia.jpg


Alone at last, the Little Key sits at the harbor rail, the waterline boot is higher than needed because two people take her down that 4" -7" showing here. Canopy sags show more clearly here, but the new one is nice and taut, even so, the sheer of the canopy line should have been more pronounced in order to show more complimentary lines to the sheer of the skiff. The curve of the canopy is not very obvious in this picture.

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
 

Kevin Morin

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
78
Re: 14' Welded Aluminum Skiff

This spring before the canvas riggers returned the canopy the Skipper of the Little Key took me and the new puppy for a tour up the Bay.

So, after all the designing, building,painting rigging and tale telling, here is the Skipper, tiller in hand, leaving the Seldovia Harbor breakwater and fending off the Ship's Dog with the other. Battery and fuel lines run into the starboard locker to keep the clutter down, ambient temp is about 45deg F in this photo

IMG_0205.jpg


Cheers,
Kevin Morin
 
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