Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
My Don Hill boatowner is quite pleased
He came up yesterday and got his "new" boat. A very happy and somewhat amazed (by the boat's transformation) fellow. He insisted I take a small bonus payment for my work, which I did not turn down. With the bonus, I made just about minimum wage..almost. Other than the sanding, re-working the old Woodie was really quite fun.
We put almost $1000 in materials and supplies into the job. I had over 100 hrs of labor as well.
In our original discussions and my quick estimate, (done on the trailer in a snow-storm) I didn't figure on replacing any screws or the gunwale fasteners. Once I got 'in there' however, I just couldn't let that kinda stuff go out my door.
I certainly could have done this more cheaply, had I just done a quick cosmetic once-over...used cheap materials, epoxy filler and 5200 to plug holes and to stick things back together, left in rusty screws, etc. I just can't/won't send out a boat that way.
Hopefully, good work will pay off with future customers for me. As this client showed, there are people around who do appreciate craftsmanship. I was pleasantly surprised when he insisted on paying me more than we'd agreed on after seeing how his boat came out.
For sure, this Don Hill 16 footer will now be good for another 25+ years of service, if her owners treat her right.
He also said I could use the boat and trailer anytime I wanted. Nice!
Don Hanson
Views: 136
Comment
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Comment by Don Hanson on May 24, 2011 at 11:52am
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Yes, a lot of time. With patterns and all the materials at hand I could have built the boat in about the same time, most likely. There is just no way to quickly sand an assembled boat to accept a finish that has any hope of sticking over old flaking and checked wood. All those little corners, nooks and crannies. All the rusty screwheads that I had to EZ-out. All the gunwale cap nuts that were rusted on, yet the whole carriage bolt would spin in the hole....carve a slot with my grinder, heat up the bolt with a torch and put the impact driver on it...Time, time and more time...much of which could have been avoided had Don Hill bed the fasteners and used Stainless or bronze in the first place.
When or if you do a restoration you will get a first hand lesson. A real demonstration in the value of all that "crap" we are told about "doing things right, taking the time first time around, as you build, to save many problems later on"
Don Hanson
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Comment by Dave Z on May 24, 2011 at 10:40am
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100 hours? Man, thats alot of time. My last 16 footer took 80 hours to build from scratch. I hope I never have to do a resto!
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