Long Winter

Since the Rascal project came upon me so quickly, I was more or less, starting from scratch. Fortunately, I had the long winter to get my project organized and my wife, who is very understanding, could never push me to work in a garage that was typically less than 20 degrees F.

I set my time reviewing in absolute detail the plans I received from Wooden Boat. Excellent detail and Ken Bassett wrote a very good narative type guide. I made the promise to myself to stay within his recomendations.

Numerous catalogs were coming to me in the mail. Cleats, gauges, lights, engines, fuel tanks; all the hardware that I could need. At the time Rockford Illinois didn't have much to support boat building needs. Everything that I put onto the boat, came via mail order. That even includes the marine grade plywood used for the floor. In my opinion, M&E Marine, located in New Jersey provided by far the best selection of parts and components. Second was Boat US. I had both of their catalogs for review and depended heavily on them. I found that getting the name brand of an item, then visiting their web site often gave me a better sense of what I was ordering.

Some of these deliveries were problematic to receive. Afterall, they were delivered to a home, not a loading dock. Ultimately, we worked out these issues and deliveries were made. Typically, when the garage door was opened to receive an item, most drivers were more than happy to help off load and spent a few minutes looking over the Rascal.

It was several weeks before I could really begin building in earnest. The absolute cold could not be overcome enough in the garage to really do any work. Parts just continued to come in.

I guess it was April before I was working regularly on her. More to come.