Introduction and Announcement

[silvergull]

After posting little, reading a lot and having made a move to a wooden boat mecca, it is my hope to have contact with fellow forumites.

I have taken an apartment in Everett WA. I have joined the Center for Wooden Boats and hope to find space in which to build Paul Gartside's No 139.

I grew up in MA with Wood Pussy and Beetle Cat sailboats with an odd knockabout and Old Town Whitecap thrown in as well.

I have built one plywood and epoxy boat and rebuilt and done major repairs on traditionally built small craft.

My next project, however, will be the first since I began to pilot a wheelchair around so I have many considerations to think through. The biggest issue seems to have clear floor space all around the boat as well as well thought out approaches to machine tools, benches and stock handling.

I would love to hear from anyone with first hand experience dealing with a boat project from a chair.

That's all for now. I really value these forums.

Jim

[Wild Dingo]

Gidday there and let me be the first to welcome you to the forums :cool:

In a chair your gonna need as you say plenty of floor space all round

You dont say if you will have assistance from mates or kids so I will work from the surmise that your working mostly alone...

What will help will be a system of pulleys bosun chairs and ropes from the roof to get you up and down where you need to be this can be done with a system of tracks so you hoist yourself up and pull or move yourself along as need be

Your going to have to adapt machinery or lead in to the machinery (ramps etc) so your at the right level for you to see safely and work at your height in the chair

Another idea Ive seen work is to have a series of scaffolds around the hull so that your not restricted to the chair but can hoist yourself up onto the scaffold and work from your bum taking tools with you in a dilly bag slung from your side

You will probably also have to adapt the work to suit you given the restricted movement and strength of your lower body lifting heavy lengths of timber or scarfed ply into place while balancing and trying to attach it with clamps nails whatever will prove a tad of a nightmare better way to go is to scarf the boards insitu... thus releiving strain and making easy progress with more easily managed lengths of material

Of course this may all be irrelevent and your 6ft tall while sitting in your chair and have the strength of 10 men on steroids but hey Ive seen the above work and worked with people in chairs and with other restrictions to movement and function and it works for them

Good luck
Cheers :cool:

Edited for blatant spelling error that annoyed the livin shyte out of me :rolleyes:

[ 12-05-2005, 02:34 AM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[igatenby]

G'day mate

Welcome two, or too - whichever or both.

I used to sail Tornados with a guy in a chair - no experience in the building side though. Good luck with the build.

Ian

[silvergull]

Thanks for your kind words, you both, Dingo and Ian.

Your verbal images of slings and hoists mirrors my own. Being a double above knee amputee does cause weight distribution issues and my upper body strength isn't the best with diabetic neuropathy affecting my arms.

So, yes, creativity to the fore!

Cheers, mates.

Jim

[Rick Clark]

Hi Jim:
If I lived close by I would be more than happy to give you a hand, that being said I think you will find many of good folks in the Everett area to lend a helping hand.

Please don't be afraid to ask for some help! Most of the people in my boating world help each other all the time, the way it should be.

I am not in a chair but with a broken back I cannot stand but for a few min.'s, all I did was ask one neighbor for some help one day and three showed up at the house to help. smile.gif

And good luck on the boat project.

PS: Wild Dingo is a fine gentalmen as I have been reading his post and reply for a long time now give good sound advice.

[ 12-09-2005, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Rick Clark ]

[JimConlin]

When building small boats, i set up molds on a box beam strongback. The box beam is moveable, so the whole setup can be moved about the shop, set at varying height and even be tilted. For canoes and dinghies, my beam is 12' long and made of 2x4 sides with plywood top and bottom. For boats longer, there's a plug-in 4' extension. It's held together with construction adhesive and drywall screws. The principal drawback to this method is that unless you've levelled the setup in its current position, you can't align things on the boat with a level.

For a less mobile builder, i'd think it a great advantage to be able to vary the height and tilt of the setup. There are mechanized (crank or electric or air) lift tables which allow easy adjustment of height. Anybody got any suggestions here?

[uncas]

silvergull...My hat is off to ya...I got two hands...two legs...and I still can't nail two boards together...
Love the entusiasm and the willingness to put your skills to work.
uncas

[paladin]

Welcome to the forum....lotsa talent here from all the old pharts and younger geezers too...

[emichaels]

Welcome. I won't attempt to give advice about working from a chair as I am sure you already know a million tons more about it than I. Wish you luck, post pics often so we can follow the progress. BOL smile.gif smile.gif

Eric

[WX]

Welcome.
My only real disability is procrastination, good luck with the project.

[silvergull]

Jim Conlin: hey mate, I grew up in Fall River. My mental images of your box beam on casters seems quite interesting and full of promise.

Thank you all for the words of encouragement. I remember Bill Garden's chapter in his "Yacht Designs" about a chap who was involved in the building of a nice little cabin sloop, I believe, who had been blinded as a child.

Mr Garden commented that without the boat project, the man's life could well be a long night.

As I approach 60, 1946 was a pretty good year, I see the boat building, and sailing, as a way to preserve my life. Boat building is such an absorbing activity that one brings many skills to the work and develops others. Research by the medical community seems to point to mental activity and light physical work as being very therapeutic; even forestalling the onset and/or progression of Alzheimer's.

Yellow cedar as a Rx benefit?

Cheers,

Jim

[bamamick]

Welcome, silvergull, hale and hearty.

Cedar as an Rx? I am sure that you are right. We discussed it here just a short time ago and agreed that varnish is certainly good medicine for many of us.

Mickey Lake

[JimConlin]

silvergull-
What's under the boxbeam varies a lot. At times, it's sawhorses, varying numbers of ill-gotten milk cases, or even milk case(s) on a mechanic's creeper.
When the boat's turned, the molds are replaced with a few cradles on the boxbeam.

As i said, i'm gonna look at mechanized lifts one of these days.
http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/143846_lg.gif
Google for "motorcycle lift" or "Lift table".

I haven't got any good ideas on how to tilt the setup. That'd save the back.

[ 12-12-2005, 03:44 PM: Message edited by: JimConlin ]

[Tristan]

Originally posted by silvergull:

Research by the medical community seems to point to mental activity and light physical work as being very therapeutic; even forestalling the onset and/or progression of Alzheimer's.

JimThere's a bunch of us with various disabilities and ailments, all pretty much perking along. You are definitely right about mental activity and light physical work (exercise) being theraputic. As for Alzheimers, my familly and all my friends say my brain is pretty much gone, but I just ignore them.
:D :D :D

[Tristan]

Oh, an afterthought, Billy Atkin was quite crippled by polio. I knew a fellow who was buliding one of his designs. Billy came to inspect it every so often as it was under construction. He use his arms alone to pull himself through the inside of the boat. You can probably find a local support group of wheelchair bound folks who will have lots of good advice on how to do all sorts of things. Creepers used for sliding under automobiles are great for working and manuvering upside down under a hull.

[ 12-12-2005, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Tristan ]

[silvergull]

Right on, Tristan. I see that Sears has two motorcycle lifts on sale. One steel, the other aluminum. Decent minimum height and a good 16" - 19" maximum height.

As for Billy Atkin scooting around, I have done some hard thinking about using Harkin traveller cars on track secured along the waterways by which a low seat could be guided fore and aft for travel from the helm to the foredeck on a cruiser.

Hoisting davits for getting aboard from a dinghy or the reverse have also been thought about. I scared Paul Gartside when I asked about building-in heavy lift capabilities into one of his cutters in order to on/off load a 300 LB power chair to be lowered through an enlarged companionway to what would have been the base of the companionway ladder.

I found a lighter chair, 170 LBS which he thought just might work. This on a 12,000 LB cutter. In the end, I abandoned that particular line of thinking, to Paul's relief.

I must say that the preliminary plan he submitted was a very beautiful double ended marconi sloop. In the end, I just moved to where I wanted to sail. :D

If design #139 goes together well, I may bug him about the cutter again. :cool:

Cheers,

Jim

[JimConlin]

When that time comes, you might consider a multihull. When I got to choosing a boat for my dotage, the fact that they heel less drew me in that direction.

[Kermit]

Hail from across the water! If you see any postings in People and Places for "PSEBS," pay attention. There are a bunch of folks who would love to get to know you, and some may have an idea or two to share.

With some little effort I can put you in touch with a fellow who is a collegue of my wife and who sails a bunch. I think he's in tupperware, but I don't hold that against him. He's in a chair and has his boat set up to handle by himself. I think he has involvement with some sort of organization for boating for disabled folks. I'll see what I can hunt up for you.

Welcome!

Kermit

[Kermit]

Here's the link:

http://www.footloosesailing.org/index.html

Bob Ewing is the fellow. There's a brief bio of him on the site. He's a quad resulting from a diving accident, and one helluva nice guy. :D

[Jay Greer]

Hello Jim,
I am across the Sound from you in Port Townsend.
I will be happy to assist you as I can and as you may need.
JG

[silvergull]

Kermit and Jay, thank you for your welcome to the Puget Sound area. I have just registered with the FootLoose Sailing Association. I had done some sailing with a similar organization in San Diego. Unfortunately all the adapted boats are FG.

The Seattle group seems to be able to accommodate someone making a boat available for member use while the boat remains available for the owner's use. That might be a good way to make the niceness of a wooden boat accessible to people who might otherwise not have such a chance. We shall see after I get No 139 put together. :D

[uncas]

silver gull...sounds as though you are doin' everything right...
There are a lot of people here...who can help...regardless.
Good luck.
Uncas