Progress, Low Buck and Otherwise

"The broadcast was spreading, station to station..."
                                                  -Re-flex




   Bad News: It is snowing outside, again, with a dollop of freezing rain goodness.

   Marginally Better Good News:  It is one day closer to Opening Day on the Dock.

   Yeah, that's all I got.

    My name's Brian, and I hate winter.

   *Hi Brian!*
 
    Before we get into the meat of this week's meeting of Boater's Anonymous, I've got some housekeeping items to deal with:

    The Dock Six Chronicles has succumbed to the siren song (or the inevitable enslavement- your call) of Facebook.  Find us and "Like" us here:

     Dock Six Chronicles on Facebook

   We also have a Twitter feed:

Dock Six Chronicles Twitter Thingy

 Yeah, I have no idea what I am going to do with a 140 character limit, but what the hell, Twitter accounts  seem to be the interwebs equivalent of a penis- half the planet has 'em,  most aren't as impressive as you hope, and the owner is more entertained by it than anyone else.

Oh yeah, one more newsworthy note:  Look to the left.

On the screen.

Your OTHER left.

PORT.

There's a new merit badge there.  We are now a Top Sailing Blog.  Cool.

We'll fumble through how to make all of this extra connectivity relevant and useful over the next little while. Stick with us, it'll be worth it.

Maybe.

Last weekend SWMBO surprised me with a birthday gathering of Docksters at our local pub, The Blue Elephant.  Friday night she suggested we go out for a drink to celebrate my continued descent into the depths of middle age.  We walk in and find most of the usual suspects holding down a fleet of tables:

     Throw enough booze on the table, and things get interesting.  In true D6C low-buck spirit, Melanie threw together a diorama using materials found on the table.  Throw together a couple of straws, some napkins, the salt and pepper baskets some tape and a Sharpie borrowed from the bar and Wha-BAM!

An impending grounding!  Apparently.


Thanks, all of you, for making the night memorable.


Progress continues on the SUP build.

  With frames cut, the next step is to cut slots to accept the longitudinal stringers that will stiffen up the inner framework of the 'boards.  The idea is to create a sort of egg crate structure, combining stiffness with light weight.  I clamped the frames together into a block , cranked the blade on the table saw to the correct height, and pushed the block of frames over the spinning blade.  Three passes later, all of the frames were uniformly slotted.

  Next step is to drill big holes into each frame.

 On purpose.

  A light SUP is a maneuverable, easier paddling SUP.  There aren't a whole lot of places to effectively save weight on a paddleboard, without building a submarine, except the frames.  The challenge is to build frames as light as possible without making them too weak to carry my not inconsiderable ass.

  Below you can see the end result- notched and lightened frames.

  I didn't toss the dozens of holes I just cut.

  Those wooden discs will come in handy later in the build.

   But, that's another chapter, for another day.

   Next up- building a strongback, and some semi-skilled scarphing.


"Talk the Dock!"