Mission Navigation’s 3rd Custom Workboat Construction

Currently in the works at Mission Navigation

Design

The boat will be a 20 ft semi-dory with a 7 1/2 ft beam, and be powered by a 30 HP outboard.  This boat was specifically designed to meet the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s needs to can carry a lot of cargo, but still be light enough to be stored on the beach and the outboard removed for safe keeping.  2000 pounds of positive flotation is built into a watertight compartment beneath the entire deck for extra safety.

Logistics

The boat is being built by a volunteer team in Kingsport, TN, with remote virtual supervision by RV Hodge our master builder, and Jay Majors, our designer and naval architect. COVID has taught us to be flexible and resourceful. Mission Navigation has partnered with The Inventor Center, a maker’s space in Kingsport, to access their 5 ‘ x 10’ CNC router to cut the building frame components, and the hull side and bottom panels from the designer’s CAD drawing. This collaboration enabled a novice building team to assemble a hull to precise standards, a must for safety and performance.

Progress Description

Construction of the building form began in July 2022, and the Douglas fir marine plywood hull shell was completed by the end of August. The exterior of the inverted hull was fiberglassed, skegs added, painted, and flipped upright by Thanksgiving.

The inside bottom was fiberglassed and 20 transverse deck support beams were installed. The outer deck panels were epoxied in place, and then the entire subdeck area was filled with waterproof 2 lb./cu. ft. polyurethane foam to provide an additional 2000 lbs. of positive flotation. The center deck panels were epoxied in place to seal in the foam. As this was being done, a 6” gunwale was being built up, one ½” band at a time. A mid and aft thwart were cut out and a bow seat/storage box was cut. By year end, all of the carpentry had been completed and dry-fit.

2023 will see the fiberglassing of the interior, installation of the seating, and interior painting.

Grounding Shoe

Once again I find I am way behind on updates to the website and blog.

Since the beginning of the Covid shutdown, outside contact has been strictly limited. As things have tentatively opened up we are wrapping up the last few projects. The biggest hurdle was to get a survey for insurance purposes. And since the surveyor is known to me through work, I asked for recommendations as well.

Other than a few regulatory oversights, which we are correcting, the main recommendation was the addition of a grounding shoe. A grounding shoe (sometimes called a keel shoe) is a metal “shoe” that attaches to the base of the keel and protects the keel from excessive wear and tear when the boat bottoms out. This is particularly important in rocky areas, something we do not have here. The other, and probably more important role of the grounding shoe, is that it extends under the prop and the rudder protecting those vulnerable (and expensive) items from damage during close encounters with the hard bottom in shallow water.

So I looked at some of the trawlers in the boatyard and set out to design a shoe. I’m not a welder, but was fortunate enough to have Glen Adams from JAARs Maritime mission to offer to help. Glen is a welder, and we were able to tack up the assembly this Saturday. He will complete the welding in his shop and we’ll mount it on the boat in a few weeks.

Stay Tuned.
And as always, thank you for keeping us in your prayers.
RV

Lots of Progress ... Slow Reporting

As we approach the finish line with this boat, the work hours have lengthened to wrap up a ”little bit more” each weekend. The price for that has been the record keeping and reporting has suffered.

My apologies.

Meanwhile, here is a little teaser report to let you know we are still at it and wrapping things up.

Please stay tuned.

#H4H #HopeForHaiti

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Hinges, and Bumpers, and Painting ... Oh My!

I managed to sneak into the shop about an hour and a half early today. I’m not normally a project hog, but … sanding.
It was a fun time, but for some reason most people don’t exactly love it.

We got the first section of bumper on the bow. We’re using dock bumper as it is robust and nicely fits the need for this build.

We also got the hinges and hasps on the lazarette hatch lid and the engine box lid. So, the two small lids are mounted.

And we got the inside of the two big lids sanded and painted.

#HopeForHaiti


May we more fully realize the hope within us as we celebrate the Resurrection of The Lord.

Lots of Little Pieces

We have been working on the Hope For Haiti each weekend and it is coming together piece by piece. It is amazing how many little pieces and little steps are needed to get the rigging done.

We have tools and parts stacked on the decks and gunwales, so the pictures are not very picturesque. But, you can see the progress. I’ll let the pictures do the main talking.

Back to work on the H4H

We have been back to work on the Hope For Haiti for a couple of weekends now. Last weekend consisted of a lot of sanding and prepping. We also pulled all of the temporarily mounted hardware.
This weekend the hit list was all over the place. The completed projects are listed below.

  • The last of the fiberglass work is done, including the rudder. (Yay! At least I hope that’s all.)

  • The shaft bearing is installed in the shaft tube.

  • The fuel fill and vent have been located, drilled out, and the holes have been coated with epoxy

  • All of the bolt holes drilled (so far) for all the hardware have been resin coated.

  • More sanding for paint work.

  • The gunwales have been coated with 2 more coats of paint.

  • The inside hull sides have been painted.

  • The lazarette hatch lid has been painted on the exposed surfaces.

There may be a few other odds and ends, but that covers the most of it. If you are interested in helping finish, email me to see if I have a project that can match your skill.

Stay tuned!

#H4H


H4H For the Finish

The Problem

We had a hurricane in September. You may have heard about it as it did a substantial amount of destruction in our community. We (Jennie and I) were not excused from the destruction, and the recovery process is proving to be tedious and painfully slow. Since the hurricane in September, it has hardly stopped raining. Those two little circumstances have kept us at a dead stop for 6 months on the Hope For Haiti (H4H) build.

The Prayer

We needed a dry place to work on the boat out of the crazy weather. We needed a shop space in an area that sustained some level of damages to almost 100% of the structures.
Not much to ask for.

The Answer

We were able to rent a space in a nearby shop for well below market value! And last night we got the boat off the trailer. We are back in business!

Thank You!

Thank you for your support through prayers, financial contributions, and research! Now please pray that we will have the energy and help we need to finish the boat within the allotted weeks we have this space to use.