Aluminum Memorial to a Welded Aluminum Skipper
Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:55 pm
Welder and crew; If this post should be relocated I'll rely on you folks to move it somewhere else. I didn't know IronWoodTuna but this is along the same lines as his memorials here, posting here is not meant in any way as disrespecting his area of the site.
Another Alloy Boat Skipper's Memorial
An old family friend's son "passed over the bar" a year or so ago, not all that unexpected even though he was a young man because of a heart condition from birth that qualified him to apply for a donated organ that didn't get to him before his quit.
His Dad, whom I've known since the mid 60's, wanted to have a small memorial built to mount on a granite rock in the father's yard and after listening to him describe what the memorial would need to look like, I realized that I didn't know anyone who'd build what was needed. Its not all that big a deal, but in our area there just wasn't anyone that I knew who'd be likely to take the memorial project on.
My friend's son was a six pack charter fisherman (offshore hook and line guide) he owned a 30' twin Honda 150hp outboard, welded aluminum boat and his father wanted to have a copy built 30" long as remembrance. The son, whom we'll call Skipper John B, fished the Cook Inlet for salmon and halibut probably didn't make clients throw back a decent rock fish or large enough cod if one climbed aboard. The weather in the Gulf of Alaska can be a little lumpy and its normal to run in after a day's fishing with an offshore breeze moving against your heading, and if the tide were ebbing, a short break forms that covers the course to the few harbors. I kind of had that idea from Skipper John's Dad when we talked.
So I volunteered to give the project a try; this is what I built. It's posted here since technically it is a "metal boat" even if only 30" long and made of 0.080" and 0.060" 5052, with 0.100" and 0.125" "water". Its definitely an Aluminum Alloy Boat, even if its not completely done in these photos. The brow of the cabin is too full forward, the bulwarks still has too much convex and turns up too high, there aren't any rails or fishing gear because in scale those would be wire sized and a bit fragile for this outdoor display, but details or not; here is the Metal Memorial seascape to a fellow welded aluminum boat fisherman/guide from the Gulf of Alaska.
This is actually the 'back' of the [mostly finished] piece since the visitor to the family's yard will come to the memorial from opposite the camera view. The rock sits in between trees in the yard so getting behind the rock to see this view won't be as common- but it helps to give the memorial some context as we view it here.
This is the 'front' of the piece, the boat is running into a short breaking sea which is running away from the viewer so the boat is almost head too the waves. When designing this little boat I followed the Skipper's Dad's ideas about orientation and he liked the boat running into the visitor's view bow on.
You've gotta leave me a little room here, it turns out the aluminum waves and bow wash aren't as easy to make as 30" long welded aluminum boats; and the boat is kind of a work out as well. This view is below what would normally be a line of sight and somewhat 'behind the rock' but included here for the metal working inclined.
Again, dropping down to bent knees level for our line of sight, the idea of the seascape is of the boat 'running in', which in this neck of the woods means the boat is headed north by northeast from somewhere in the Southern Cook Inlet against a North blow pushing an ebb tide. A man wouldn't think a bow wave was as much work as it turns out to be, until you go from the pencil on paper to the sheet metal, then instead of a few strokes with your hand you have to roll, bend, wheel, texture, form and fiddle with sheet metal until there is some resemblance to 'water'.
A little more detail of the stern view, not one that will be seen much by visitors but I ended up having to make the piece more complete than I originally imagined because the overall look seemed incomplete without the stern, a wake and all. The outboards are not hollow, I had to carve them from solid aluminum since my attempt to model that shape - in sheet making these small surfaces, then welding them- was too time consuming. The 'wake' aft the boat isn't quite finished; some of the transitions and edging are not done, but the main ideas are here.
Speaking of Honda Outboards, have you ever tried to get a machine drawing of these engines? If anyone has drawings of these engines I'd sure like to have a copy of the files, it was extremely hard to get any accurate modeling info- dimensions and other details seem a very closely held 'secret' of Honda! I couldn't find any 2" thick x 4" bar to cut these from so I cut outlines of 1" x 4" 6061 bar and beveled the centerline of the two outline blocks then welded them to make the 2" thick blanks. The rest is mainly hand band sawing and sanding - with some air die grinder and carbide burr carving thrown in.
These little engines are mounted to a fairly reasonably replica of the stern mount on the original boat, which was well built, but lighter than I'd have preferred to make an engine cantilever. I tend to build my outboard powered boats with a hollow nacelle [engine mount or bracket] that often has planing bottom too, this boat's engines are on a pipe framed plate cantilevered off the transom but gusseted underneath to the hull stringers inside.
The overall metal work is not entirely finished but there are quite a few hours even to this stage regardless if it's only a 30" long boat. There''ll be another bit of bow spray going along the chine of the starboard side shown here, more or less filling some of the space between the waves and helping to 'wet' the line of the hull as spray will trail along dripping from the chines when a planing boat runs in a head sea. Windows will be filled from within with sheet plastic and the entire show will mount to the rock on some studs that a friend has kindly explained to me how to mount.
Welding .060" and .080" boxes or tanks is one thing, but welding a hull of that material is more challenging especially when the welds are inside fillets. Outside edge-to-edge isn't as hard to weld, but the deck to cabin or trunk to deck welds are not up to the level I'd have liked to brought to the project. Looking back, I could have used a fusion tolerating alloy like 3003 where I didn't have to have filler but I'm not up to speed on those alloys and by the time I got the boat cutout and tacked, I was too lazy to go back from scratch with new material.
Aluminum water sounded easy to make, [! ???? !] but I found it was a bit of challenge, in fact, it was more work figuring out what to do than the boat. Of course, I've built plenty of boats, so scaling those ideas down to 1" = 1'-0" wasn't new territory, just smaller pieces. However, aluminum breakers turned out to be more than I'd bargained for. I guess if we just keep folks 10' back things will work out OK, its kind of like my spray paint jobs- any where outside 25' feet and they look "real dressy" - but they don't really hold up with a close inspection. I kind of let my alligator mouth volunteer my hummingbird 'stern' to do more than I figured.
Just before this 30" boat I did a 14' er and if the level of effort that I've experienced follows any pattern: then its [proportionally] more work to build smaller than it is to build larger! I think a nice 20' skiff sounds like relaxing 'next' boat.
I've already mounted the cast aluminum plaque on the rock this past fall, following my friends' great step-by-step directions about metal studs in rock with epoxy and it worked fine; so, hopefully, this spring when things warm up a little we'll mount the "Coastal Quest" on its final mooring, in memory of her Skipper, John B.
I include this look at a welded metal memorial here as a memory of all the great guys who have welded alloy boats and fish the salt around their home ports, who have already passed, including Marty Macmillan.
Cheers,
Another Alloy Boat Skipper's Memorial
An old family friend's son "passed over the bar" a year or so ago, not all that unexpected even though he was a young man because of a heart condition from birth that qualified him to apply for a donated organ that didn't get to him before his quit.
His Dad, whom I've known since the mid 60's, wanted to have a small memorial built to mount on a granite rock in the father's yard and after listening to him describe what the memorial would need to look like, I realized that I didn't know anyone who'd build what was needed. Its not all that big a deal, but in our area there just wasn't anyone that I knew who'd be likely to take the memorial project on.
My friend's son was a six pack charter fisherman (offshore hook and line guide) he owned a 30' twin Honda 150hp outboard, welded aluminum boat and his father wanted to have a copy built 30" long as remembrance. The son, whom we'll call Skipper John B, fished the Cook Inlet for salmon and halibut probably didn't make clients throw back a decent rock fish or large enough cod if one climbed aboard. The weather in the Gulf of Alaska can be a little lumpy and its normal to run in after a day's fishing with an offshore breeze moving against your heading, and if the tide were ebbing, a short break forms that covers the course to the few harbors. I kind of had that idea from Skipper John's Dad when we talked.
So I volunteered to give the project a try; this is what I built. It's posted here since technically it is a "metal boat" even if only 30" long and made of 0.080" and 0.060" 5052, with 0.100" and 0.125" "water". Its definitely an Aluminum Alloy Boat, even if its not completely done in these photos. The brow of the cabin is too full forward, the bulwarks still has too much convex and turns up too high, there aren't any rails or fishing gear because in scale those would be wire sized and a bit fragile for this outdoor display, but details or not; here is the Metal Memorial seascape to a fellow welded aluminum boat fisherman/guide from the Gulf of Alaska.
This is actually the 'back' of the [mostly finished] piece since the visitor to the family's yard will come to the memorial from opposite the camera view. The rock sits in between trees in the yard so getting behind the rock to see this view won't be as common- but it helps to give the memorial some context as we view it here.
This is the 'front' of the piece, the boat is running into a short breaking sea which is running away from the viewer so the boat is almost head too the waves. When designing this little boat I followed the Skipper's Dad's ideas about orientation and he liked the boat running into the visitor's view bow on.
You've gotta leave me a little room here, it turns out the aluminum waves and bow wash aren't as easy to make as 30" long welded aluminum boats; and the boat is kind of a work out as well. This view is below what would normally be a line of sight and somewhat 'behind the rock' but included here for the metal working inclined.
Again, dropping down to bent knees level for our line of sight, the idea of the seascape is of the boat 'running in', which in this neck of the woods means the boat is headed north by northeast from somewhere in the Southern Cook Inlet against a North blow pushing an ebb tide. A man wouldn't think a bow wave was as much work as it turns out to be, until you go from the pencil on paper to the sheet metal, then instead of a few strokes with your hand you have to roll, bend, wheel, texture, form and fiddle with sheet metal until there is some resemblance to 'water'.
A little more detail of the stern view, not one that will be seen much by visitors but I ended up having to make the piece more complete than I originally imagined because the overall look seemed incomplete without the stern, a wake and all. The outboards are not hollow, I had to carve them from solid aluminum since my attempt to model that shape - in sheet making these small surfaces, then welding them- was too time consuming. The 'wake' aft the boat isn't quite finished; some of the transitions and edging are not done, but the main ideas are here.
Speaking of Honda Outboards, have you ever tried to get a machine drawing of these engines? If anyone has drawings of these engines I'd sure like to have a copy of the files, it was extremely hard to get any accurate modeling info- dimensions and other details seem a very closely held 'secret' of Honda! I couldn't find any 2" thick x 4" bar to cut these from so I cut outlines of 1" x 4" 6061 bar and beveled the centerline of the two outline blocks then welded them to make the 2" thick blanks. The rest is mainly hand band sawing and sanding - with some air die grinder and carbide burr carving thrown in.
These little engines are mounted to a fairly reasonably replica of the stern mount on the original boat, which was well built, but lighter than I'd have preferred to make an engine cantilever. I tend to build my outboard powered boats with a hollow nacelle [engine mount or bracket] that often has planing bottom too, this boat's engines are on a pipe framed plate cantilevered off the transom but gusseted underneath to the hull stringers inside.
The overall metal work is not entirely finished but there are quite a few hours even to this stage regardless if it's only a 30" long boat. There''ll be another bit of bow spray going along the chine of the starboard side shown here, more or less filling some of the space between the waves and helping to 'wet' the line of the hull as spray will trail along dripping from the chines when a planing boat runs in a head sea. Windows will be filled from within with sheet plastic and the entire show will mount to the rock on some studs that a friend has kindly explained to me how to mount.
Welding .060" and .080" boxes or tanks is one thing, but welding a hull of that material is more challenging especially when the welds are inside fillets. Outside edge-to-edge isn't as hard to weld, but the deck to cabin or trunk to deck welds are not up to the level I'd have liked to brought to the project. Looking back, I could have used a fusion tolerating alloy like 3003 where I didn't have to have filler but I'm not up to speed on those alloys and by the time I got the boat cutout and tacked, I was too lazy to go back from scratch with new material.
Aluminum water sounded easy to make, [! ???? !] but I found it was a bit of challenge, in fact, it was more work figuring out what to do than the boat. Of course, I've built plenty of boats, so scaling those ideas down to 1" = 1'-0" wasn't new territory, just smaller pieces. However, aluminum breakers turned out to be more than I'd bargained for. I guess if we just keep folks 10' back things will work out OK, its kind of like my spray paint jobs- any where outside 25' feet and they look "real dressy" - but they don't really hold up with a close inspection. I kind of let my alligator mouth volunteer my hummingbird 'stern' to do more than I figured.
Just before this 30" boat I did a 14' er and if the level of effort that I've experienced follows any pattern: then its [proportionally] more work to build smaller than it is to build larger! I think a nice 20' skiff sounds like relaxing 'next' boat.
I've already mounted the cast aluminum plaque on the rock this past fall, following my friends' great step-by-step directions about metal studs in rock with epoxy and it worked fine; so, hopefully, this spring when things warm up a little we'll mount the "Coastal Quest" on its final mooring, in memory of her Skipper, John B.
I include this look at a welded metal memorial here as a memory of all the great guys who have welded alloy boats and fish the salt around their home ports, who have already passed, including Marty Macmillan.
Cheers,