More Boat Stuff, and some others.

Ok, so. Update from last time. I'm back in school for Spring quarter; which is tight. I'm still in the fiberglass shop, which is not. It's not that bad, but I'd really rather be in the wooden boat shop. So, if you'll recall, or maybe not, maybe I didn't tell you about it, but last quarter we built fiberglass hulls from molds, which was the most unpleasant thing I've ever done. I hope it never happens again. Anyway, now we're trimming them out with wood; that's nice. When we slapped the thing together, I was working with Matt and Meg. Meg isn't very experienced, and takes a while to get things done, but works hard, and is a very pleasant artistic person. Matt's a good woodworker, but a pretty passive aggressive person, knows exactly what he wants, but makes you pull it out of him, won't just tell you, or just do it, and always made sure things were absolutely perfect, which never happened anyway. Needless to say, I get along better with Meg, and not so much with Matt, but he's not back this quarter, so it's just the two of us. Which is good and bad, because it means that we make decisions way faster, and don't have to talk over everything we do three times, but we're also down a person, and like I said, Meg's not very quick. Oh well. So, we decided to use fir and ash. Things are going pretty well, the grain on the fir is intense. It's really tight vertical grain, and the ash is wide and crazy. So that's tight.
The next thing is that I'm going to be building sculling oars for a sail transport company here in the Puget Sound. That's right. There's a company that moves local organic produce around the Sound with 0% emissions; by sail. And the head of the company, whom I met at a SPOA (Seattle Peak Oil Awareness) meeting, wants me to build sculling oars for him. Since they're 100% emissions free, they don't use engines, and need a mode of propulsion in harbor or in calm seas. So I'm hoping to be making some of those this quarter, and I think I've decided what boat I want to build in the wooden boat shop. The Bekabune will not work out, due to various factors, so I wanted to build a Western boat. I'd been thinking about many different designs, including Dinghies and Dories and the like, I wanted something that was rowable, but could also take sail, and eventually it struck me. There's a boat in the wood shop right now that almost finished, and it's always been my favorite there. It's a pinky sterned peapod, which means that it's dewdrop shaped, and it's gorgeous. The wood, the shape, the form, everything is perfect. Peapods (which are typically double ended and resemble a garden peapod) were originally used in New England by lobstermen, and are extremely manueverable. I found a design for an Oregon Peapod by Benford Design (you can see the lines drawings if you google image search those words) that is 11' LOA and has a beam of 4'-6". It's pretty tight. The Planking will be pretty difficult since the stern is so intensely bent, but we'll see what happens. So that's what's going on schoolwise. Work is still work. It's getting to me, because I don't ever produce anything there, I only sell things, which means I have nothing to show for a day of work except a paycheck, and that's pretty frustrating. I suppose if I really liked what I did, that would be it's own reward, but I don't. It's ok. But saying the same thing over and over again is no fun. There's only so much you can say about chilis. And then you have to deal with dumb customers too. Sometimes it's the stereotypical tourist who knows nothing, and feels like he has to prove to you how much he knows, sometimes it's the 40 year old mom who knows exactly what she wants, but asks your opinion anyway, and then contradicts you and tries to prove why she's right for three minutes when I would have been perfectly happy just letting her pick what she wanted in the first place. And convincing people that you know what you're talking about is hard. That's frustrating. I sell fruit for a living. I know what I'm talking about. If I tell you the fruit is good, it's good. If I tell you it's not in season, it's not in season. I don't see a dime of what you spend, I have no reason to lie. If I don't know, I'll say I don't and ask Sean or something. Come on, guys. Anyway, that's what work is like. Sometimes it's nice, but I'm definitely ready for another job this summer.