Things are shaping up with the Leah Gent. Thanksgiving was a real feed with all the kids in attendance. We did manage
to get a lot done on the boat. The windows are framed out on the bottom and the rear bulkhead was cut along with the side
panels on the back and side of the cabin. All the roof beams are in I think we need to buy more wood!! I will need to
wait until warm weather to put on the roof due to the limited space above the boat with the winter plastic in place. We have
finally decided where to put the fridge and stove. This is the part of the project that requires larger chunks of money and
you really don't have much to look at when you get done. Lots of little jobs to keep us busy until then.
12/9/02
We spent the whole day Saturday shopping for boat systems. Ended up buying a small gas fired water heater to take care
of the hot water, a 35 gallon water tank that will go under the berth and a shower stall from Lowes. We debated about the
shower stall but the weight was about the same as I would have had if I had done everything out of plywood and epoxy and the
cost was very reasonable. We got the shower installed after taking out the back bulkhead(good thing we hadn't epoxied it in
yet) and working out the drain problems. The shower will drain into a box with a float switch and bilge pump and overboard
discharge. All this will save us a few weekends of work and we now have a nice, white, fiberglass shower! We are going to
Florida after Christmas to pick up what we can at several of the salvage yards there. I still need a stove and fridge.........
12/16/02
We spent the day Sunday getting the rear bulkheads epoxied in for good. Started building the closet and enclosure for
the hot water heater. If you look at the picture you will see the heater and the shower in the rear of the boat. It looks
like the pre-fab shower is going to be a good idea after all. It should be easy to put a door on to the face of the shower
and it will be eaiser to keep clean when we get done. We should get some work in this week. We are almost done with Christmas
parties and parades. I drove my good friend, Doug Terry's Plymouth Prowler in the Christmas parade and the kids loved it.
It's a really cool car and always brings out the kid in me. Till next week..................
12/27/02
We didn't get to work much over the holiday due to a white Christmas and 80+ mile per hour wind. The boat shop took a
beating and now everyone including me is sick. We leave for Florida on Sunday to get parts and tanks and other needs. At least
it will be warm down there.
1/6/03
Happy New Year. Debbie and I celabrated our 27th anniversary on New Years day with a cruise thru the lakes of Winter
Park, Florida. It was nice to be warm for a change.
We picked up a lot of the parts and pieces we needed at some salvage places in Florida. I don't think my Honda Civic
could have held another box. I managed to find a 50 gallon gas tank that will fit under the back deck perfectly and leave
me room for the holding tank. We got a lot of strange looks with it strapped to the top of the Honda. If you are thinking
about building a boat, check the links page for the address to the Flounder Pounder, aka. Ken Gearin. He has a lot of stuff
you will need at about half of the prices in the catalogs. We saved a ton of money with him and he can get it for you if he
doesn't have it in stock. Picked up a stainless propane range and built the bulkhead yesterday for it's location eventually.
We will have enough work to do with all we bought in Florida to last us a month or two. I'll put up a picture soon.
1/13/03
We spent the weekend getting the helm station, stove, galley and water tank roughed in. The toughest thing about building
in a boat are the angles. The sides come in as you move forward and the floor comes up. All this makes cabinet building tough.
We tend to mock up things before we start cutting wood. I built the bulkheads for the stove to sit between and framed out
the galley. We put the water tank under the stove to save space under the galley. The helm went in without a hitch. Although
I have had a lot of boats I have never replaced the steering cable on any of them. We used a Tel-Flex system and it took all
of 15 minutes to put it in. I was dreading this part of the building process but it turned out to be very simple. There is
something special about putting on the steering wheel for the first time. I put PVC tubing under the gunnels to run
my cables and wiring through and it is a lot easier than routing things behind panels.The panels for the cabinet fronts are
in the clamps now and I hope to get them stained and on next weekend. Also, everyone keeps asking about the door leading to
the bow. It will be cut out as soon as I get the height of the front deck. We are concentrating on the interior because it
has been too cold to do much epoxy work and the bow will require a lot of epoxy. I may put a dagger board trunk in front of
the forward buldkhead to help with docking, yet keep any leaks outside of the main cabin. More on that later. Thanks
to all who send me the encourging e-mails. I get a lot of good ideas from the people who read this page. Thanks!!
1/20/03
Finally had 3 whole days to work on the boat. It snowed 6" Thursday night and that pretty well shuts down the town. We
got a lot of the wood in the front part of the boat stained and fitted and the front on the galley along with the counter
top and sink cutout. Plumbed out the lines from the water tank under the stove to the water heater and finished up the window
frames for the front windows. You can see the clamps in the picture for the last one. It's on to building the booth this week.
Another snow Wenesday so maybe more time to sneek away from the office.
1/26/03
Got in a good weekends work. The counter top laminate is on and we put up most of the wood in the forward cabin. We have
decided to start at the front of the cabin and work our way to the back of the boat to keep from scratching up the wood work
as we go. The picture to the right shows the new hunter green counter top and some of the wood paneling. You can see the start
of the booth. We got the face template cut out and made a few changes as to where things will be. We put more paneling up
on the right after Doug took these pictures. One of the problems with trying to take pictures of the interior of the cabin
is I can't get back far enough to everything in. Doug brought over his fisheye lens and I finally have a picture with most
everything in it. That's Debbie and I in one of our few pictures together. I'm usually behind the camera.
