Batfish Deck

[MWALLEN]

I don't see a reason why I can't be there.  So, count me in.

Mark S. -  can we count on any of the other re-enactors to come out?

[MWALLEN]

Rick - as we discussed last time I was down...we were looking at the deck that has been replaced and decided we needed a game plan in order to get the wood straight.

Right now, if you stand back and look at it, it's curved and bowed and isn't lining up too well.  We had talked about spacers between the boards and clamps or something in order to keep the spacing consistent and do away with the curved look that the new deck is taking.

With the August 23rd work day coming up...just thought I'd drop this on you already busy schedule.  I can outline a plan for you and we can go from there if you'd like.  Let me know.

Mark A.

[Mark Sarsfield]

I know what you mean about curving wood.  The new wood is thicker than the old wood.  So, we can't make spacers based on the old deck.  We could, however, take measurements of the new deck that has been laid down and that isn't warped.  However, we are very much at the mercy of the people that drilled the bolt holes into the steel frame.  Sometimes, in order to get a straight board, some of the bolt holes will be close to one edge of the board.  Another trick that I use when lining up the wood is paying attention to the black paint lines on the metal from from where the previous board was.

When Roger and I lay the deck down, we correct for the warping by drilling holes on the ends and puting a bolt at each end.  Then we push on it with a crow bar until it looks like it's parallel with the other boards.  Then, we make the rest of the hole marks on the wood, drill them, and then bolt it back down.  It's extra work, but we got a few boards to straigten out early on when we first started laying deck.

I was a little disappointed to see that one crooked board when I came back to work on the boat last month.  I'm happy to say that I did not lay that board down.  At the same time, I understand that there is a learning/experience curve with laying the deck down from making the right cuts to drilling the counter-sink holes to the right depth.  If that board really bothers us, we can always pull it and put a new one in there. 

Is the wood stacked near the shed warping?  I'm guessing that randomly piling/throwing the wood on the bow and letting the sun and rain take their toll is causing the warping.  We'll probably need to take more care in how was stack the wood in the future to minimize our installation work-load.

As for reenactors, Jay, Roger, and myself will be the only regulars that you see.  Travis helps if he's in the area.  John G. has been pitching in a lot, too.  The last time that Tim K. was helping, he said that he knows guys that treat 'work' as a 4-letter word.  They want to play, but they won't pitch in to help.  I see this in reenacting a lot... even in past churches that I have attended.  Sad.

[Lance Dean]

I'd be concerned about future cracking of the wood if you try to compensate for sweep in the wood.

[JTheotonio]

I'm sure it may be too late, but has any one explored the idea of using composite wood planking? Some of the new stuff they use for decking is out performing real wood with less maintenance.

[Mark Sarsfield]

This is wood that started out straight and then bowed.  I understand what you mean about preloading structural members, but usually we're only bending the wood back into place by no more than 1/2" - 3/4" in the middle.  This is pretty tought stuff, too.

[Mark Sarsfield]

I think I remember bringing composite wood up to Rick at some point. I don't remember all of the details, but price was probably a major factor.  This Brazilian red heart wood is not cheap stuff.

[Rick]

I hope this answers everyones questions.......

The wood that we have for our deck right now is a purple Brazilian Heart wood.  This wood is very expensive and is not easily replaced.   The wood supply that we have cost the BMF $32k.   I do not know what the desicion process was that went into making this purchase.  The was done befor my time.   I am left with knowing that this is the only wood that we have for this deck.  This is what we are using.   Further more,  the Cavala used this same wood for their deck and it turned out very nice.   We also dixcussed the need for treating this wood before laying it down.   Per the Cavala's crew they were not able to treat it.  It did not accept anything that they tried to place down on it.    I am afraid that the warping problems. that we see on the wood right now is the result of the wood being left out in the weather for the past 2.5 yeas.   If it were layd down fresh, I do not believe that we would have this problem. 

Moving on.  I spoke with Dennis Gilbert a little on this issue and come to the determination that we do need to use some type of spacer.  Further inspections of the plans provided to us by the Cavalla show a 1" gap between each board.   I just purchased a 10x6x1 board tu use as a spacer (or gadge) for the future as we move forward.  We cannot do too much about the bolt holse as we are confined to the esisting holes on the deck cross members.  There are already multiple holes drilled into these cross members and i do not want to degrade the integraty of them.   Otherwise we will be replacing all of the steal cross members on the boat.

I hope this helps out.

Rick

[MWALLEN]

Next Saturday...our planned work day for the deck (you didn't forget did you?) looks to have a projected high of 88 degrees.  A far cry better than what we have suffered through.

I think so far we only have 3-4 coming out.  Who esle can we count on?

Mark A.

[JohnG]

I am going to try. Depends on the race schedule. What time are we meeting up for it?

[MWALLEN]

Rick usually opens up for us at 9 AM so that is when I'm planning to show up.

So far, this is the "for sure" list of people showing up this Saturday:

Mark S., Ed, Brandt, Me & my wife.  I'm pretty sure Rick will help when he can.

Hope others can make it out.

Mark A.

[Mark Sarsfield]

This will pretty much be it.  We'll do what we can.

It sounds like there is a glimmer of hope regarding paint and sandblasting donations to the boat.  Rick mentioned to me last Thursday over lunch that he would like to aim for November to shut the museum down and get all of this banged out, if the stars align properly.  So, my question is should we modify our approach and just keep pulling old wood for the next few months?  We'll only leave in place the wood that is needed to support the plywood walk way and then in late October we could rip it all off.

[MWALLEN]

So, my question is should we modify our approach and just keep pulling old wood for the next few months?  We'll only leave in place the wood that is needed to support the plywood walk way and then in late October we could rip it all off.

That's a good question.  I guess alot depends on what Rick thinks...and what is planned for the October work week.

Rick, what do you think?

[Rick]

I still have some discussions that need to be made with Bradley.   he has a really good idea for a fund raiser to help paint the boat.  I need to finalize some of these planes before saying no wood.  I do think, for this weekend,  we concentrate on pulling more of the deck as we have been.   we are in a real good position to pull all the way back to the aft end of the boat on the starbord side.   

[Mark Sarsfield]

It definitely won't hurt anything to keep pulling wood as long as there is a walkway.  It reduces the number of places that he wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, et al make a home.  Speaking of which, there's a nasty yellow jacket nest near the engine room hatch.

Anyway, if we keep pulling wood, we somehow need to keep track of where the various hatches are located.  Especially after the support beams get blasted and painted.  Unless, we happen to have a deck plan showing all of the hatch locations.