#3 Pirate Ship Playhouse - continued

HEY THAR!
This Bee's
Captain HighTide

Pirate Ship Playhouse:

2007-Demolition & 2008-Construction:

 Let the Demolition begin!

2007

The first thing I did was remove as many deck screws with my cordless drill as I could because I thought I would save the teak decking for the rebuild. After I thought I had saved enough of the decking, I decided to make some cuts with the sawzall and remove bigger sections at one time because the one screw at a time plan was going to take forever. All the screws on the boat were made out of brass and I had a few pounds of brass saved up in no time.

And then it came time to remove the 2 engines.  I had to get a fork lift to lift them out. Everything went smoothly as planned and I was able to sell them as well as a few other items from the boat. 

With the Engines out of the way, I started on the Main section, (the Cabin)

I was cutting and prying and tossing huge pieces

of boat onto the ground for about 5 weeks

Then it was time to replace the missing Planks!

I added some extra support to the top of the midsection

(Main Deck of the Pirate Ship)

What was once a boat is now an empty Hull

Whew!  I'm Tired, Lets take a break Shall we?

A friend gave me a real cool item called a Binnacle for the Pirate ship...

 Binnacles are used for navigation at night or during heavy fog,

This will come in real handy during our late night adventures. 

 

 

Starting in spring/summer of 2008

I sanded the original finish off the exterior and then added

 the  stain and clear marine finish to the bare Mahogany Planks. 

Next I placed a transition piece I made out of Oak wood for the higher front Bow design 

(I'm raising the front Bow section up 5  planks about 20" higher)

Here I've added the Plank supports

This is about the time of year I start putting everything away for winter and getting the

boat ready for the wet weather  for 2008 

I bought a large tarp to cover the boat with for the winter that year. I installed a 10 foot pole in the middle to help the rain runoff and not pool up in a pocket.

Here in the picture above, I'm checking the rail height

(I will be adding another 12" ballaster rail above this first rail)

 

Well thats it for 2007/2008

Thanks for viewing

and Please check back each day because I'm adding more post as fast as My finger tips can produce them.

This is Captain HighTide saying:

Keep your sails Dry and the seagulls

out of the crows-nest!

Syanara,and Chow..mein

AYE! and Don't Forget, part #4 of the Pirate Ship Playhouse project will be arriving into port real soon!

OH WAIT!  ITS HERE!!!
CLICK THAT THAR LINK BELOW!
http://pirateshipplayhouseproject.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-pirate-ship-playhouse-captains.html

#2 Pirate Ship playhouse project / Hanah / Autism

HEY THAR! This Bee's
Captain HighTide Again.....

2007 - Pirate Ship Playhouse beginnings


 One day while searching Craigslist, I happened to see this 36’ old wreck of a Chris Craft constellation, built in 1962. The boat was a short distance from where I lived at a Boat storage yard.

 



 

 

 

 

This Chris Craft Mahogany wood boat was essentially saved from ending up at and adding to the county landfill.  

 

My plan is to take this 1962 Chris Craft Constellation and turn it into a Pirate Ship play house.

Well I bought it… I told my wife on my cell phone. Really? You actually bought a boat? Yep.  How big is it?  Um… 36 feet long.  WHAT? …36 feet? Is that big?

She questioned.  Um yes dear. 

On the drive home, I had thoughts about calling the young man that sold me the boat and making up some sort of reason why I decided not to buy it, I was saying to myself, what will the neighbors think and say?  What am I thinking? Do I realize what I’m doing? Am I capable of a project like this?  Am I getting a little crazy in the head or something? How am I going to get it to the house?

 

So I email my family to let them know that I'm going crazy in the head and how I'm going to start building this Pirate Ship playhouse project.

 I have re-built or repaired many things in my life. I have also dabbled in invention ideas and small prototype models etc, but never would I have thought I would be, at the age of 48, building a 36’ Pirate ship playhouse in my backyard?  

I took Hanah with me one day to go see the boat at the boat yard before it was moved to our house.  It was a very warm day and the boat was coated with soot and dirt inside and out because of sitting at the yard for 2+ years. Hanah and I boarded the boat and right away I knew we had to be careful as the engine hatch was broken on the main fly deck, and the screws holding the side railings were very loose,  And it was making these weird eerie creaking sounds and it wasn’t even close to Halloween yet?

Hanah went inside the cabin and wanted me to be Captain Hook so she could be Peter Pan and save Wendy, I amused her for a minute with my Captain Hook impressions.  "Pe-T-er Pan!  Who and What Are" You! I said. "I’m Joy, I’m Freedom!" Hanah shouted.  Okay Daddy, Now let’s fly! C’mon Daddy Fly!  Hanah commanded.  Uh not now Hanah I have to put some things away before the move. 

 Hanah is running about the boat and getting dirtier by the minute.

 

 



I own a home on a corner lot in a quiet little county maintained neighborhood and already had a section of fence removed so he could back right in.  I had him place the boat as far back in the yard as he could so hopefully people driving by wouldn’t see it.

 



So here it is…the 36 foot long, 12 feet wide by 13 feet high boat taking up quite a bit of backyard space.

 



Of course Hanah wanted to play on the boat so I let her get on the boat a few times before I started the demolition.  The front cab area had a window hatch in the roof 



And I would climb up through it and onto the upper deck and then pull Hanah up and through the hatch. She loved that as well.  AGAIN DADDY!  Okay but just one more time okay?  Okay daddy.

 

 

Well about 5 more times, I was too tired and hot to do any more Peter Panning and it was time to start making my plans of attack to transform this boat into a Pirate ship!

 

 

Continued to-  Part #3 Pirate Ship playhouse project / Hanah / Autism

Click this here link
http://pirateshipplayhouseproject.blogspot.com/2010/10/3-pirate-ship-playhouse-construction.html