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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

My first shrimp'n boat......homemade

Ok, bout that boat. It was back in bout 1968, or somewheres bout there, in Texas City, Texas. I bought me up a 24 foot wooden cabin cruiser boat with a freak'n 100 horsepower Mercury outboard motor on it. That motor really sucked. The boat leaked something awful.
After bout a year of tak'n the boat out maybe two times an' spend'n tons of $$$$$ on that sucker, I parked it in the yard. The motor was in a dumpster. That piece of shit motor had burn slap up. That was when my "modify'n mind" kicked in. "Lets remove the cabin an' make a open shrimp'n/fish'n boat out of this sucker". A truck load of beautiful mahogany boards was purchased. Pounds of stainless steel screws. A few 16 penny nails. We gonna build a little bitty shrimp'n an' fish'n boat. A 25 foot shrimp net was purchased. Along with bout $400 worth of ropes, cables an' pulleys.

With the boat all rigged out with new gear, we need a motor....an' some air in the trailer tires. She's a beauty all shiney white, varnished mahogany an' homemade wrap around windshields. We need a motor if'n we gonna go catch a hunnert pounds of shrimp.

Out in the yard sits my old Corvair [details goes here] with all the winders busted out. [details goes here] We have a motor. A shaft an' prop are purchased an' installed. The Corvair engine is lined up an' connected to a modified 4 speed truck transmission. [details goes here]. A boat slip is rented at Moses Lake in Texas City an' the boat is tied with care in the slip. We on a roll, I gonna be a boneified shrimp'n boat captain.

On the maiden voyage....first time out, the frigg'n prop fell slap off. This is a hunnert dollar solid brass prop....we gotta find it. Took a good two hours to find that sucker in all that mud an' yuk, an' another two hours to reinstall it. [details goes here].

The shrimp net is carefully slipped over the side, mak'n sure nobody is look'n (Moses lake is closed to shrimp'n). Fine yer ass a thousand dollar if' ya get catched.

The Corvair engine begins to overheat. It's a hunnert an' fiddy degs in the boat, sweat pour'n down. [details goes here] The net is pulled back in an' our maiden voyage ceases. We got some modifications to make. A 4 foot piece of 8" metal duct pipe is installed to the cooling fan outlet. This directs all that hot air up in the stratosphere an' not in the boat. It may look rather ugly, but it works perfect. We paint it white.

The boat springs a slight leak. Enough to sink that sucker if not repaired. I ain't catched my first shrimp yet, so it needs repaired right now. From Moses Lake to the Texas City dike is right at bout 5 mile or so of the open waters of Galveston bay. That's where "yo mama" will meet me with the truck an' trailer.

Tomorrow, you will learn of all them red lights flash'n an' hunnerts of people stand'n round.

The winds blowed like hell yesterday, an' it weren't all that warm outside. No sit'n on "da porch" sip'n up a cup an' think'n. I got a tug boat to work on. I retrieved the airplane from under "da house" an' remove the radio gear from it to use in the tug boat.
Just to give ya a idea of how the old Billy Bob does things, this control device will be used in a boat.

What will the FCC have to say bout this....I don't even care, I do things MY way.

Inside the boat, the motor, motor control an' two servos, those black thingys, have been installed. Rudder works perfect. Motor speed control (the silver thingy with the little arm stick'n out, yet to be modified to Billy Bob specifications.

I'm think'n that's a pretty sharp installation.

I got dishes to warsh an' a floor to sweep. Cain't get behind on my housework ya know. See ya laters.... 


 

 

6 comments:

  1. That does look like a sharp installation.
    Waiting for part 2 of the shrimp boat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. Hi Louie, where the hell ya been?
      A merry Christmas to you too Louie.

      Delete
  3. Enjoy you marine stories. Yes, looks like a good job on the boat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tug Boat is looking good. Nice arrangement for the servos and alignment on drive motor. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Please keep filling in the details on the shrimp boat adventure.

    ReplyDelete