Rebuilding a very old air compressor for sandblasting the hull...

With a long New England winter settled in I was not quite able to get the tin roofing on the building so the restoration phase will have to wait a few more months to begin. Aperios covers were left in place but tucked in a bit tighter for the winter. So it seemed a good time to work on the sandblasting program in the warm shop. One downside of a steel boat is that they need to be sandblasted and painted every 10 years or so. Aperio is well overdue for the full show.

After an email blitz to various town and state surplus agencies I purchased this 1969 air compressor from the Burlington National Guard Air Station. Nobody at the air base knew if it would run. Many hours have been spent freeing stuck valves and seized parts, I installed 2 new pistons, a few new bolts, exhaust valves, gaskets & filters. With a bit of luck that will do the trick and it will handle the entire sandblasting process and then be sold prior to launching the boat. The compressor is a bit small but that might come in handy at times. $200 for the machine and it has a jackhammer too! That and the 300lb sandblasting pot I am about to build may help put some change in Aperios coffer.  

Today I am empowered by the thoughts of visiting Arawa, Papua New Guinea and walking on the beaches where my grandfather landed in WWII. He made it out of there safely... I hope to too!

New pistons, rings and wrist pins.

Two pistons removed and waiting for the new ones in the mail.

Turned the key and nothing. No clicks, bangs or puffs of smoke.
Just plain dead.

Prior to the adoption process. - lonely and neglected.

The Long Roll...

We finally rolled the boat 400' up the new roadway and into the restoration building. Although we waited for the ground to freeze up a bit the biggest issue was still the mud. The rolling platform worked nicely but the original 8x10 beam under the bow cracked - which was retrofitted easily with a 10x10. The key to keeping the 32,000lb load from crashing through the cradle was the center skid. Basically, the majority of the weight was in compression through the center skid so deflection of the cross members played very little roll. Thirty rollers were used, ten under each skid, making a distributed load of 1,000lbs (+) / roller when evenly weighted.

Now to get the roofing tin on and then, finally, the restoration begins!

- Thanksgiving at the Whitehairs -
Julian rocks in his PJ's at 25 degrees! - nice job patching the neighbors driveway Julian! Thanks!

Ebben pulling with the logging skid system - lots of slow control @ 14,000lb pull strength which was nice.
The dozer is pushing from behind and holding the works between resetting the tractor.
The incline here was a challenge as it was quite steep.

We made it though the mud!
Erling, Jamey, Jeremy, Jeff, Jullian, Price, Ebben & Bria  - Thanks for the help!

32,000 lbs over a road of phone poll rollers, on a phone pole platform.
300' up the hill and around three corners. Nothing broke. Amazing.

View of Bluesette from the breakfast table.
Motivation at it's finest...
Time for some roofing tin!

The Rolling Platform

Spring returned and a very used roof structure was salvaged. Ebben and I cleared away the forest, carved out the hillside, cut drains and built the roadway. The roofing sections were erected.

For ease of convenience throughout the rebuild the roof structure was built about 400' away from where Maverick was first placed. Now we face the challenge of moving the hull up the newly built roadway, through two 45 degree corners and into the building. I looked around for months for parts to build a trailer system for the move but I was not able to salvage one that was worthy. I settled on the idea of a three skid platform for the hull that literally rolled over sections of phone poll rollers. The poles were left over from raising the building. This is the most challenging phase of the rebuild as I have never moved such weight anywhere near that distance. We will first try to draw it along with a logging attachment that is spec'd to pull 14,000lbs but in addition we'll use the dozer and an additional Kabota tractor for more pull/control as needed.

The cradle platform is now built. The boat has been jacked up 24" to reassemble the cradle under it.  The first 10 feet will prove whether or not the whole idea will work.

These days I find myself dreaming of visiting Rio de Janeiro. After rounding Cape of Good Hope it will be a good place to gather up some new steam.

Three phone poles make the skids on the platform. Set on 3' phone pole rollers
The cross members are notched into the skid poles and bolted with 3/4" bolts.
 This worked very nicely.

A wonderful Distraction: Ebbens 32' Ericson Restoration....

When the steel building is up his boat will lay right next to Aperio for refitting.  He is thinking of naming it  "Look out!"

Check out the YouTube video:

Ebben, his friend Max and his sister Bria at work taking apart the first block.

On Chappaquiddick Island picking up block #2,

A view inside block #2.   Nasty!

Many, many hours later... it purrs like a kitten! and it's beautiful!
Notice Ebben is a couple of years older?

A few reference photos taken 20 years ago....

Building the boat shed

Click on images to play videos or enlarge photos

 A half acre of trees for the sugar house...

Ebben stumping out the lot
 May/2012

A hard lesson...  broke the excavators main swing arm casting.
John Deere said no more are available...
Ebben located one via internet junk yard and had it in the mail within hours! Yup!

Through the jungles of Vermont

Aperios' stern in the distance

First bent going up!

After much searching: located a used steel town shed that had been disassembled and was about to go up for auction.   Combined with 15 used phoned poles (free for the asking) raised the clearance to 22' . 

A bargain at $1,200.00

Ready for cross bracing, grass seed and steel roofing party.
The frame is raised 7' on the used phone polls.
21' clearance on inside low corners of Aperios main bay.
Ebbens $1.00 32' Ericson will be in the left bay. Another story entirely!

Maverick Arrives!

Maverick arrives by overland carrier:

ps: 

Never lift a boat like this! once in the air we could not set it down to equalize the straps... 

a horrible moment I'd rather forget!