Friday Funny 06-25/2021 (Whatever Floats Your Boat, House)

 

"Easy DIY Floathouse"

I recently replaced the zippers on a heavy vinyl/canvas enclosure that belongs to a commercial fishing boat. The owner, Les, saw me creating the new dodger/bimini last summer, and asked if I would help him out.  I said sure, but we've had a hard time connecting with Denali Rose, and Venus being in our slips at the same time. We ran into each other recently at a local cafe, and it all came together!

In addition to his fishing vessel, Les also has a floathouse that he keeps on our dock, and it was a very convenient place to set up sewing. 

Those large grey tarps needed their connecting zippers replaced, and I patched a few chafed areas also.

 

Inside the floathouse, definitely a guy's domain.

Before outboards, the floathouse was usually towed to the Stikine River for hunting, and tied off, or anchored, but Les was cited for not having a State of Alaska Vessel permit (?), even though it's a house (?). So  he put some outboards on, registered it with the state, and VOILA, a vessel is born. Go back up, and look at the front porch again, you'll see a steering pedestal on the front, with controls for the rear outboards, and an anchor sitting right in front. This is the ultimate in "if you don't like the neighborhood, move", conveyance.

This conversion solves several issues. Most folks go hunting up the Stikine River which is part of the Tongass Natl forest, and the Forestry Service doesn't like float houses tying off to the shore, and the local harbor commission doesn't like floathouses in the marina, so, yippeee, it's a vessel! Pretty funny to see this "house", vessel underway.

The finished canvas project.

And rolled up on the boat, ready for deployment. Venus fishes in the Gulf of Alaska, and when heavy weather comes in, they roll the curtains down, and continue working.

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Friday Funny 05-14/2021 (Peace Out, or Paint Out!)

 

The harbor office said that they were all booked for moving vessels into the water on Friday, so we thought we would be in the yard over the weekend, and splash on Monday. Turns out, while we were having our coffee, and reading emails Friday morning, they decided we had 20 minutes to get ready, and they would splash us now! Scramble drill! Put stuff away, prepare the boat for underway mode, get all the tools, ladders, paint, and buckets out from underneath the boat, and toss it into the truck bed. And just like that, we're back in our slip in Heritage Harbor. 

Arriving our slip.

While we were in the yard, they moved this beautiful old wooden boat in to be restored. 

Notice the size of the Pirate's Pride, and the size of Denali Rose, they had to use the large lift for this one.

We did manage to get at least 2 coats of bottom paint on all around [and 5 at the waterline, rudder and skeg, prop area, and all leading edges...] The Alaska Airlines air freight paint arrived on Tuesday, the UPS replacement paint from Jamestown Distributors arrived on Thursday, and the USPS paint from Fisheries has arrived on Saturday. We are all painted out.

We shouldn't see this view of Denali Rose for another 4-5 years again.

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.