The city-owned Punta Gorda Bayfront Center, located on Charlotte Harbor adjacent to Gilchrist Park, is currently leased to the YMCA, but a competing lease proposal by the Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center would provide better utilization of … [Read more...]
Archives for 2012
Rebuilding Whale Watching Tenders Part 16
December 5, 2011 First Gelcoat on Pec, Small Repairs and Fairing Richard the welder was an early riser and he delivered the second hard top frame just after sunrise, reminding us that we had yet to fabricate tops for these … [Read more...]
Saw My First Wingsail In Person Today
Today I dropped by the Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center to borrow some race marks and anchors for the upcoming Sun Cat National Championship Regatta this weekend, and as I drove up I noticed that the truck in front of me had a couple of wing … [Read more...]
Rebuilding Whale Watching Tenders Part 15
November 27, 2011 Minor Fiberglass Repairs All the grinding in recent days finally came to fruition today as we went around and applied fiberglass to several minor repairs. To reinforce and smooth the gunwale edge where swimmers will … [Read more...]
Rebuilding Whale Watching Tenders Part 14
November 16, 2011 Fiberglassing Decks on Both Boats We got an early start and were out on the boats doing final preparations for fiberglassing the decks over the new fuel tanks before our young helpers were really alert. After doing a … [Read more...]
Rebuilding Whale Watching Tenders Part 13
November 11, 2011 The day started like many others: with someone running a grinder. This time it was Adam preparing the pieces of marine plywood deck for installation. The undersides were previously coated with resin but drips and areas that would … [Read more...]
Outboard Lower Unit Crack
We have an old 3 cylinder Yamaha two-stroke on the 15' Boston Whaler and the normally reliable beast recently stranded us for the very first time before magically fixing itself. It has been running perfectly ever since. I think it has an intermittent … [Read more...]
Rebuilding Whale Watching Tenders Part 12
November 7, 2011 Another leap forward in time has occurred and I am returning to writing about this project on September 22, 2012, almost a year after the events unfolded. The pictures will have to tell the parts of the story I have … [Read more...]
Welcome to the WordPress Tropical Boating!
After a great deal of work by Tropical Web Works and some editorial skimming by me, we are happy to announce the transition of Tropical Boating to the WordPress platform. The change will make it easier to find related content on the site, will enable … [Read more...]
Powering Up the Cowmaran
Repowering The ELB - Extremely Light Boat AKA The Cowmaran Twin Engine Cowmaran Toward the end of March 2012, the Cowmaran reappeared in my yard, this time with a second engine hanging on the transom. The original design concept called for twin … [Read more...]
