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<BODY bgColor=#ffffff><tt>From:</tt> <tt>
"alberg30" <alberg30@interactive.net></tt>
<br><br>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tom; here are some notes on the dingy
project.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>--After several unsuccessful attempts at using an
inflatable dingy, I vowed never again to use one. I swore I'd be a hard dink man
from then on. Thus I bought our dink from a retired Lt.Col. who had it stacked
on his wood pile in NC. He wanted $300 and I was cheap and gave him $200. I
promised to take care of it, and with a tear in his eye (knowing it had seen
better days) he let me have it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This dink is fiberglass, 8 1/2" long and about 48"
at its widest point. I think its fairly standard as a one-off type mold. I
suspect it weighs in around 50-75lb. Its a monster to move by yourself mostly
because of balance. The hull showed stress crazing at the points where the seats
are glassed in on the inside. The dagger board sheath was plywood; it leaked
slightly, and was starting to delaminate. I could have sawed off the sheath and
started fresh, but the plywood was just becoming nasty. I encapsulated it in
fiberglass, thus solving the leak.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I reinforced the seat attachments only lightly with
fresh fiberglass. I left the seats as wood and just painted everything.
Painted the hull with Interlux off-white one part topside polyurethane. Same
stuff I expect to use on deck of #499. Painted the inside Largo Blue. Learned
good lesson: don't use cheep HomeDepot light green or peach colored rollers to
apply paint. Fuzz sticks to everything. Use those sexy yellow close cell foam
rollers. Three inch works best. Primed with the brightside primer also by
Interlux. That stuff is the best!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Not sure what you call them, but where you put the
oar locks, were originally light plastic "cups". They were cracked and too big
for the brass oar locks on my oars. I took the cups off, and replaced them with
mahogany wood pieces that the brass oar locks fit snugly in. Blocks are bolted
with 5/16, 2 1/2" long ssteel hex bolts throughout the edge of the dink and
through the hose.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Now the hose: The edge of the dink is about 250"
long. I used about 24' of three inch fire hose. Fire hose they say comes in
three sizes I think. Something like a small,medium,and large. The medium is the
3", although it may not actually be called three inch. I cut the first cloth
layer on the outside of the hose off. This removes discoloring and also the
stenciling that says YOUR LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENT HERE. The layer of cloth
underneath is pristine.Under this last layer of cloth is black rubber. I did not
split the hose, but left it intact. Hose is about 1/4" thick when pressed flat.
The edge of the dingy is L shaped, with the L upside-down. Originally there was
a hard plastic rubrail that scratched #499 when on the water. Pulled this off.
Needed to decrease the diameter of the edge that the 3" hose would cover.
Did not pad hose, or use rope insert, mostly because I forgot. Seems pretty
padded anyway due to rubber inside. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Experimented with several ways of attaching hose.
Predrilling holes separately on the hose and the dingy edge does not work. Too
hard to line up. Eventually used first mate to hold hose in place while I
predrilled through top of hose (about 1/4" from top edge), and into dingy
edge. Screwed in #8 1 1/4" ssteel sheet metal screws. Use an electric
screwdriver for God's sake. Also use those little decorative washers on top.
Drill though hose on top, though dingy edge, then wrap bottom edge of hose
underneath and hope the screw catches. Takes a couple tries in difficult spots.
Also takes some tries to get hose in tight against dingy edge. Gets better the
as you get farther along. It would be possible to have screws only go through
one layer of hose at the bottom thus hiding the screw tip. But I had a feeling
that the hose might pop off after time, and occasionally a screw tip would punch
through anyway, so I screwed right through the bottom. Took #10-24 ssteel nuts
with nylon inserts and screwed them onto sheet metal screws. Now get this. The
metal threads don't really catch, but they start great, and the nylon insert
snugs up real nice and tight. Afterwards I used a grinding wheel on a
drill to grind down the screw tips. Voila! That hose is firmly
secured & your fingers don't get snagged when lifting the dink. Beats the
hell out of trying to snake #10 machine screws through predrilled holes. Screwed
down the hose about every 3 inches, and closer at corners.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Also added ssteel u-bolts, two forward and two aft
with painted backing plates (plywood) for future use to secure boat to cabin top
or foredeck. By the way, Mad Scientist Experiment # 5,238: create a cabin top
mounting system for dink similar to Lynn & Larry Pardy's dingy mount on that
cool wooden boat they have. Also added a new reinforced bow eye, with mahogany
backing plate because I envisioned loosing this $200 dink with the $100
worth of stainless hardware, when the old one broke.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bought all sstainless at Lowe's--the absolute best
prices and selection. There's also a 1" thick hardwood rub strake on the one
inch molded keel, screwed and 3M 5200'd in place.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Probably more than you EVER wanted to know about
the dingy project. But there you go.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Maybe I can answer any other questions off
line;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Joe #499</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"One Less Traveled"</FONT></DIV>
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