A Head Turner From PAR

Who's ......... Uh, never mind.

 

No prob.

Have one at my cabin for spare use...IIRC those small disposable 16 oz propane tanks will heat up about 40 gallons to very hot@ under a gallon a minute.
But you need to research.

 

I really need to check my email more often....

PAR sent this the other day. On the left is the original solid bulkhead he had in mind between the pilot house and main cabin, and on the right is his recommendation if I want to open it up. As he suggests, I can install pilasters to give the effect of a full column to each side of the doorway.

Thank you, Paul.


By the way, this is the sort of attention to detail PAR shows throughout the plans. He may be a little casual about letting me arrange the furniture to suit myself (as long as everything's properly tied into the structure to add stiffness), but he's hard-core about making sure the boat holds together when I'm done with it.

 

I think propane is the only way to go. They're readily available, easy to install and change out. The plumbing is nearly idiot proof and standardized. They get hot enough so you don't make a career out of boiling water for tea, even in cold weather, plus you can light a cigar from one instantly in a pinch.

Personally, on small boats like this, I tend to cook out in the open of a cockpit, usually over charcoal or a gas grill. With the exception of boats like this, most find they don't do much cooking, but instead park at the local shore side restaurants and enjoy themselves, like the decadent yacht owners they are. If your more my speed, then you hit the bars that line the shores and maybe get a sandwich.

The above image is part of my "Framing Guide" section in the plans. Most will look to these to see where things hang on the frames. It's not all encompassing, but does show where things live, relative to other elements.

 

I'll probably be cooking out in the open a lot, unless the weather's bad. But I'll use the cook top for coffee and breakfast. And on chilly winter mornings, the little Sardine wood stove I'm thinking of buying is just the right size for a coffeepot.

edit: I'll probably install the Sardine so its top is even with the galley counter, and put a wood bin under it. And yes, I know how to install wood stoves properly. I grew up around them, and installed them as a contractor.

Even if I could afford to play the part of a decadent yacht owner, the desert lakes aren't exactly lined with restaurants. Although I suppose I could always hang around Lake Havasu City, and get trampled by college kids....

 

Man, you have a lot more tolerance than I. Coffee in the morning is a mandatory thing and waiting for a wood stove to get hot enough to brew my coffee would be completely unacceptable. Some things in life I can wait for, but damn if it'll be my coffee. I'm pretty familiar with the Sardine wood stoves and they're cute little things. I'm sure you know, but I've had to fix a few and do use a 4" chimney.

 

You'd be surprised how quickly I can fire up a wood stove; I've been doing it since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. And on mornings when I'm making coffee on it, it'll probably have had a banked fire in it all night anyway. Which means there'll probably be coals.

But I can function for a while without coffee if I have to. On the job I usually wait until I get to work, and have a big mug while I'm settling into my shift and reviewing the log sheets and screens.

 

I've only been around one Sardine, and I was impressed by how much heat it put out and how long a banked fire would last (for its size, of course).

What sort of things have you had to fix on them?

 

Bad installs and the glass are the usual issues. People seem to think they are different because they're small and on a boat, but they're just a wood stove, like any other. The wrong type and/or size chimney, bad or improper heads, absurd mountings, you name it. I'm sure you seen similar in land based arrangements, though most of the time it's a lot easier to find someone, who knows how to install one in a house, without burning things down.

 

Update... I think I mentioned somewhere in this thread that I was hoping to sell some of my land in Arizona to pay for Egress. Well, I looked at the real estate market there, and apparently half that end of the state is up for resale right now. So unless I want to take a serious bath, I don't like my chances of selling for the next couple of years (at least).

Next idea: hit up my credit union. But although they're familiar with short-term construction loans for houses, which get converted to conventional mortgages as soon the work is done, I doubt they're used to bankrolling boat construction the same way. So I'd probably have to go with a plain old signature loan, with no collateral. I think my credit's good enough to swing one, but I might not like the terms.

Next next idea: take out a line of credit on one of our homes. We have enough equity to do that, but the wife will have a cow at the very thought -- even though it would only be a small piece of said equity. Is it worth the hate and discontent? I dunno.... if I've learned one thing in my life, it's that 'if mama's not happy, ain't nobody happy'.

Which could leave me just scraping the money together and doing it out-of-pocket. I'm not wild about that approach, because if there's some sort of financial hitch in my life (like the transmission going out on my pickup, which I think it's thinking about doing), the boat sets partially finished. Which isn't good for anything made of wood, especially in this climate.

And waiting until I've managed to salt away enough to finish the boat regardless of circumstances could put a serious dent in my building schedule. I want to start enjoying this boat when I retire, not start building it when I retire.

I'm not really expecting anyone to hand me a magical answer to my problem here. I'm just musing out loud, and weighing my options.

 

Im looking for a bit of land in Arizona. Is it anywhere near the Erps grave yard .

Any way does'nt matter good nieghbours is more important.

I hope your girl Egress can hold out till you get re financed.

How much you got -how much is it --can Brits buy it. Thinking of a pig farm and car breakers.

 

Wyatt Earp spent his later life in southern California not far from my home, and I would assume he's buried in the state. But the community of Earp, right across the river in Arizona, is named for him because he supposedly lived there for a while. My land is about an hour from there....

As long as their money's good, foreigners (even Brits) are allowed to freely own property in the US -- unlike some countries with heavy restrictions, like Mexico.

I suppose you could raise pigs there, if you wanted to pay for drilling a well. The area has good water under it, but it's 500 to 800 feet down.

Prices vary dramatically, depending on things like water and highway access. But bare land with no improvement or special features starts at about $2500 an acre for five-acre parcels. Unfortunately for me there seems to be a glut right now, and some panicked and/or hurting owners are selling dirt cheap. If I were twenty years younger I'd be busy buying instead of selling...

 

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Good luck, Troy! Wish I could be of some help but I'm trying to get my little boat done and facing similar(but not the same) choices. I'm thinking what it will come down to with me is just going with what my "guts" feel best about.
Every alternative has a great rationale for and against-its tough.

 

Put your BOM together and garage sale like crazy!

Really though, with time on your hands, give yourself a budget and start rounding up materials and hardware. Get on everyone's email list and start watching for the best deals. Put your time to your advantage. It puts you in the better bargaining position to only be wanting and not needing something.

My dos pesos. Good luck in your bargain shopping!

 

2,500 an acre is very cheap isnt it.

You would have to pay about 250,000 dollars in Thailand for that and thats not beach land.