Jim June 30th, 2007
Well folks, I think I had mentioned that my goal was to have the boat on the water by the first week in July. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to miss that deadline by several weeks. The reason? Mismanagement.
My sister, Pam, has been bugging me to write about her contribution to the boat project. So here it is, in total: Two Saturdays ago, Pam appointed herself “supervisor” of the boat project, and then promptly fell asleep in a chair not far from where I was working on the boat. She did wake up briefly, and was able to successfully measure out the location for the screws in the sheer strake, but then decided that this type of work was far too hands-on for someone from the managerial class like herself. So, now the boat is behind schedule. It is amazing that a project, which was only briefly managed, can suffer so badly at the hands of mismangement. Such is life, I suppose.
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Jim June 13th, 2007
Well this past weekend was my last weekend as a part-time boat builder. Soon I shall leave the ranks of the gainfully employed to pursue a full-time career as a boat wright. Actually, I guess I will still be gainfully employed, and I expect the gains to be much higher that those available in corporate America. Unfortunately, they will also be significantly less monetary in nature. In fact, the title of this post is a misnomer, as I will be paid approx. $0/hr. Some things you do for money; some you do for love.
Also, some things you do for health insurance. Please pray I don’t injure myself.
I’m reminded of a description of the Atlantic Challenge boat building apprenticeship program:
… young people would be eager to learn a demanding trade abandoned by most of its practitioners a half century earlier. And that in pursuit of this knowledge they would willingly place themselves outside the economic mainstream for two years or more, participating in an exchange of labor for learning during which they would receive no wage for the extensive work they would perform. Apprentices labored long hours at arduous tasks, emerging perhaps only with the satisfaction of having begun to master skills for which there seemed at best a marginal demand.
Well, it was either this or go to cobbler school … Continue Reading »
Jim June 2nd, 2007
Well, first off, that last post was a bit hurried, and I didn’t fully (or at all) explain the various names and why they may or may not be good names for a boat. Joe was kind enough to point that out, and explanations will follow in this post. Also, I didn’t describe any of the photos posted or what various challenges I had to overcome. So I went back and edited the previous post so hopefully it is a little more informative.
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