This September marks the seventh year of this boat building obsession. I had to knock off for a while as I was seeing double and could not recognize people across the room. March was the month for me to not renew my driver's license and from then on I mostly walked to places as needed. My vision issues continued until July when I got patched up by cataract surgery. My dusty shop was not the place to be after such surgery. Thankfully, I had a friend who travels to Belize City once a week and he conveyed me to the eye clinic a number of times.
Above is the 2022 Great Wall Motors (GWM), Cannon Poer, pickup truck. I'll leave it to my readers to determine the country of origin. This is the vehicle that transported me to Belize City for fun with eyes. I was impressed with the fit and finish, how quiet it is, the comfortable ride, the multitude of features and the great acceleration. My friend upgrades his vehicles at two year intervals and he planned to buy a new Cannon pickup. My vintage Chevrolet S10 pickup has been problematic and suffers a rain water leak that wets the seats, dashboard wiring and floor boards. Attachment to the S10 never developed, but it served the purpose of not appearing flashy or affluent. The Cannon was offered at a great price providing a leap frog upgrade for me. The flashy and affluent appearance thing may have gone out the window.
I likely, may never become a truck guy and this truck exceeds my truck needs. It is powered by a two liter, four cylinder, turbocharged diesel coupled to an eight speed automatic transmission providing the great acceleration. I'm now riding in air conditioned comfort. The Cannon is the top of the pickup line equipped with lane keeping, bird's eye view and backup cameras, four wheel drive, keyless start/entry and many other features I'm still exploring and learning to use. The key fob expanded my key wad by one third and resulted in inadvertent horn honking as other keys pressed against the fob. I now carry the fob in a separate pocket to avoid the startling horn episodes. GWM offers fully featured pickups at a price and value that U.S. producers do not match. Interestingly, the GWM dealership is owned by the progressive Mennonites from Spanish Lookout.
The boat build continues with cutting into the last full plywood sheet and using up all of the fiberglass fabric (more needed). Is the project end near? Much remains to be done and my latest efforts have focused on building a catwalk aft of the cockpit and extending to the aft most crossbeam. I intend to install a barbecue on the aft most crossbeam. But wait, there's more!
The catwalk is also a boarding ladder! This will greatly ease the process of removing one's self from the water. This image also shows the beams, to either side of the ladder, that will support the aft trampoline(s). The beams are not shown in the previous image as additional fitment is required in the catwalk configuration. Additional hardware is on the way so that pulling on a line will retract the catwalk or releasing the line will deploy the ladder. It might be that a partially deployed ladder will make a great seat for barbecue activities.
This is the raw stack of parts that must be assembled, sheathed in fiberglass, repeatedly sanded and painted. The eagle eyed will notice that the finished product has one less tread than shown here. Somehow I made a mistake, but lucked out where the dimensions are such that one less tread fits the installed position.
Fixtures were made to epoxy together the treads. The fixtures hold everything square during the curing process. The treads pivot on 1/2" fiberglass rods that extend into holes drilled through the side rails. The rods are epoxied only to the side rails to hold the whole assembly together.
There is much painting ahead. High temperature and high humidity are not desirable conditions for this activity. A used portable air conditioner was purchased to reduce the temperature and humidity in the shop. The air conditioner is too small to cool the whole shop, but it is located adjacent to my work area. A downside is that I have to keep all the metal window louvers closed while the AC is running. The light and the views are so much better with open louvers. An upside is I don't have to run around opening and closing the 21 louvers each day. I collect the AC water condensate in a five gallon bucket. I could have enough drinking water to last me a week by running the AC a few hours. It seems to be working!
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