Trying To Live In An Egg...

I agree, this has turned into a very interesting and informative thread, almost as good as the one about a lost dog.

 

Ok I'll add to this comotion,
1989?, December, 34" of snow decided to accumulate over a good portion of NH, not far from Lake Sunapee where I was living at the time, and this was the final straw for me, I'd had enough with the snow, I sold all of my welding shop equipment except for my 1 ton mobile welding set up, purchased a 28' camper and headed south, it was like I was holding breathe until I got below the snow belt, once I did, you couldn't have pry'd the smile off of my face with a crowbar!
Now it dawned on me" where in hell am I going?". After a half hour or so of contemplating the issue at hand, I decided North Carolina was the place to be, near the coast, I landed in Jacksonville , my Brother was stationed at Le Juene so I went to see him, his wife at the time " definately spawned from satin himself" snarled that he wasn't there, come back after 5:00.
Well I had time to burn so I dragged my camper around town for awhile , and while I had stopped to fuel the truck, a passing truck locked up its brakes, backed up and pulled up beside me, the driver emerges and asks " Are you a welder?" I thought for a minute " what would Jeff Foxworthy say if he were standing in front of $70,000 worth of mobile welding equipment" but I opted to say "yes" instead, well the adventure is fast approaching, due to my saying "yes" I had 4 months work lined up after welding that one job, in the months to come one of my job connections lead me to this Southern Bell, who just happened to be related very close to one of Nascars hero's pitmen.
To shorten the details a bit, the southern bell and I , in the short time we were together,un announced to me until 18 months after the birth, we had produced a beautiful baby girl.
Now for the day I found out about the birth of my daughter, it was a normal day, just like any other, until 5:00 pm, the phone rings, I answer " hello" the response was " I need some money!" My response to that ( as I was vaguely familiar with the voice on the other end of the line). " For what?" ... A pause.... " Your Daughter!" ...... After I regained composiure, I immediately headed back to NC , I had moved back to the north east to get my right leg rebuilt at white river jct VA medical center in VT after the southern bell and I had parted ways 2 plus years prior to the phone call


If this story has sparked an interest, I'll continue in a bit, just having back surgery last wednesday, I've got to take a break,

 

Hey, Is this turning into a "how I met" or "How I left my wife?" and other adventures.....

Poor Sean, All I wanted to know is what he is doing and what he is doing now.....

Hi Frosty, Long time no 'see' how is your front protrusion coming along? Longer WLL?

 

lol ., no,.. believe it or it does lead to how I did my first build for a boat

 

Ja sus as we say back home, I thought my life was a whirlwind of luck and tormoil. Are you sure you want to awaken more of those long past memories, risky similar to acid flashbacks Here's wishing a happy ending--Geo.

 

OK,..so I got the phone call and went directly to NC,..did the normal "is this really my daughter" thing ,..checked in at the state ,.etc ,..well she is,..so I set up support and started paying,..I'll skip a year or so ha ha well
the next thing I hear ,..my daughters mother has lost my daughter to the state,. the state never contacted me ,..no one had informed me,..not even my daughters grand parents,.. to shorten it even more ,..it took 4 years to find her,. I sold everything I owned,..airplanes,..house,..truck ,..motor cycles,..etc all the toys that a bachelor can acrue up to age 41 (lol Viking north just got the email ) I moved back to NC again,..seems I have to be a resident for at least 6 months before I can fight for her in court,..
fast forward 3 YEARS,..I lost,..but I did get 49% custody@#$%??? who ever heard of such a thing ,..her grand daddy beat me,..she is now 16 and living outside of Raleigh NC.
BUT,..during the last year of fighting for her in court ,..I did meet my first and present wife ha ha! a Texas girl,..anyways ,..
Now we moved to Missouri,..I had been fishing the piney river in a jon boat for a year,..which was ok ,..plenty of room in a 14 foot jon boat for 2 people and a case of beer ,..but ,..the man handling of the boat in and out of my truck was just too much ,..so I decided to build a boat ,..it had to be easy to handle,.. didnt want to have to find a place to park a truck with trailer though,..after giving that some thought ,... I said "Why not build a boat with a built in trailer?!!!"
after building 14 airplanes ,..a race car,..and a bunch of other stuff like houses ,..etc,..I figured I had the ability,.. the choice in design had limited avenues due to the trailering suspension involved,..and a retractable hitch,..
This is what I came up with ,..
And yes I am getting a patent on the trailering system if you look close at the photo of the boat in the water yolu can se the tongue of the hitch under the deck retracted

 

there is allot more to that story
I'll make it short ,..I got to race against some of todays nascar drivers while living/working in NC.
I got to do some welding for the Goodson boy's way before they created "Swamp Loggers" tv show
and I got to do some welding on the track dryrs they use for the nascar races today

Chase

 

Well no one can accuse you of ducking your responsibilities--Good for you--Went thru a similar but less drastic fight for my son, took time and patience but today he's one of my best friends. Neat looking craft and what a combination -a built in trailer-- definately a marketable product with the big plus of being manufactured in North America. Also you do look rather content sitting there --Per adua ad astra --Geo.

 

Lol thank viking north, but that's not me on the boat, its my fishing buddy, he was too drunk to run the camera lol, actually I was surprized he didn't fall off the boat! Ha ha and yes, my Daughter Ashley and I are very close as well

 

Well if he did there's not much chance of drowning The duaghter is the happy ending---Geo.

 

Chase_B
You should proceed with the retractable draw bar as they would be ideal on most boat trailers.

When you see people trying to winch their boats onto their trailer it's obvious an extendable draw bar would be the solution.

I bought an inboard several years ago and because of the prop the boat was fairly high off the ground. To get it in and out was a nightmare,. so I had the option of a long draw bar to push it in further or a telescopic one. I opted for the longer draw bar and now the boat can float off the trailer and float back on. The benefit is when you start pulling the boat and trailer up the ramp, the boat lines up with the trailer and sits on the pads exactly centre.

The only problem is towing the boat with the longer draw bar and parking it.

An extendable draw bar would do both things. Extend it for the boat ramp and retract it for towing and parking.

Good luck with it.

Poida

 

I've already done that Pioda,.. for a couple sail boat friends ,..added 12' to the tongue which was on rollers,. one self locking pin that alligned with 2 holes in the tongue,..ie extended ,.retracted ,..put the brakes on the trailer ,..pull the locking pin and twist it ,.there is a "dog" tab on both ends of the tongue that tripped the pin to lock it in the holes,. so ,..lock the brakes on the trailer ,..pull twist pin ,..get back in truck,..pull ahead,..the "dog" tab would lock the pin in extended position ,.back intop the water,..pull out once the boat was floating,.. pull and twist the pin again,..lock the trailer brakes ,.back up,..and the Dog tab will twist the pin again and lock it in retract position,.. on one he would disconnect the trailer wiring first ,..on the other was a vacuum cleaner retract with the catch removed ,..so the trailer wiring didnt have to be unplugged

 

here is a rough drawing of the retractable hitch,..the only thing that is off from original drawing is the lenth of the swing pin,..it would be longer so when you pull the locking pin out and twist it ,..it would pull out far enough so when your swung the pin forward or back ,,it held the pin out of the way from the hitch sliding

 

Yeah Chase I looked at a system like that but it had two problems.
1. For a large boat the weight on the draw bar would make it hard to move.
2. The brake linkages would have to be disconnected.

What I configured was the part of the trailer that cradled the boat ran up and down on the draw bar. The brakes operated by the cradle moving forward on the draw bar in the retracted position. And of course there are no brakes in the extended position as you are only launching or retreiving your boat anyway.

I never ended up building it.

 

Ok - Getting Into The Cheap Grog...

Hello...

Back to Love, Sex, sharp thru deck bolts in the V berth, where you Sex the most, bath tubs and lots of hot water - well...

Egg shaped floating vehicles are not the way to go - at the best moment of Sexing those ******* bolts tend to get in the way of the back of your skull...

Hot baths are great - so are doors sized for Humans - not ******* apes...

There is also the fact that you could - on land - outrun the damned thing to any destination - not just because you can run fast - or at all - but because you do not have to run sidways into the wind...

There is also the whole 'cabin' versus room thing - I like rooms - rooms are great...

Sailing and sail boats are very lovely - as are the photographs in a National Geographic - so is the study of ancient seige weapons or Darwins views on Evolution...

Me - I AM OUT...

Sean Herron.