The staff and volunteers have been busy painting, painting, painting, these past few months, but it still looks like we won’t be able to finish everything we had hoped. We are very close though! Maintenance Supervisor, Paul Rutherford, finished the pressure hull in early September, thanks to some very generous discounts from Sherwin Williams! Once that project was completed he moved on to finishing the deck. We had painted the bow earlier in the summer since that was the worst spot and moved onto the pressure hull while the weather was nice. Paul, with the help of some part-time staff and volunteers, was able to paint most of the teak deck. All that remains is a narrow strip on the starboard side that was left open for visitors to walk on while the rest was painted. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to stay that way until next spring.
In August, another group from the Crash Dive Base came up to help out for two days. They worked on finishing up the sail area. Some work had been done in this area last summer and we’ve been trying to finish everything. It doesn’t look like it would take a long time to do, but there are a lot of little nooks & crannies up there! They spent two days prepping and painting and spent the night on the sub again. A few weeks later, a group of Navy Reservists from the Chicago area spent the night on the boat and spent a few hours finishing up the painting in the sail area. They hope to make this an annual event and we look forward to working with them next year! It took a few summers, but this area is finally finished!
All about CobiaSince this year marks the 70th anniversary of Cobia’s keel laying (March 17) and launch (November 28), we decided to make her the theme of our member’s party in August. The party was August 17th, which also happened to be the date Cobia arrived in Manitowoc, in 1970! We invited the Cobia crew here for their annual reunion, but only one original crew member was able to make it. Vance Combs was here with several members of his family and he was a celebrity for the weekend! He talked to visitors, cut the birthday cake with a saber, started the engines for the first time since his qualifying test in 1944(!), and blew the ship’s whistle! The party also featured, birthday party games, such as Pin the Conning Tower on Cobia, patriotic decorations, 70th birthday balloons, and a 5 ft. party hat that was attached to Cobia’s lookout ring for the weekend! Everyone had a great time!
Ongoing projectsRon Takacs is continuing his work on the sound powered phones. He’s found spare parts and cleaned up and repaired some of the existing phones. His goal is to restore communications from the bridge to the engine rooms which will improve communications for engine starts during special events. He and Pat Habel have also continued their research on restoring the emergency lighting system.
Pat and Russ Collins managed to uncouple engine #1 from the generator and it seemed to turn over just fine. Since then they have been working on other projects, so there is no new information on the engines at this time.
Thanks to efforts by Tim Abendroth we were finally able to replace the steps leading down into the forward torpedo room. Schaus Roofing and Mechanical in Manitowoc donated the material and labor to replace the steps with much safer material. The “original” steps were notoriously slick in the winter. These new steps will provide a much safer passage!
Tim also finished installing rope lighting behind these stairs that will help illuminate the steps during an overnight program and adjusted the lighting above the conning tower hatch for safer access to the 40 mm deck gun during “target practice.”
For photos of our Summer projects, check out the album on our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151728805071282.1073741834.102141641281&type=3
