Batfish Deck

[Rick]

I think I have a volunteer on this one......

Rick

[Travis McLain]

Let me know how the Deck work went please.

[MWALLEN]

BZ to Ed, Brandt, Rick and my wife for surviving the deluge this AM before and during deck removal...and then suffering in the heat and humidity once the sun came out.

We got all the deck from the forward entry aft and starboard to the bridge removed.

Here are some photos.

Mark A.

[Lance Dean]

Gotta love the cans and cans of wasp spray.  Good job to all of you and thanks again for the photos Mark.

[Tom Bowser]

It is great to se you guys doing it the right way and putting down wood. The Drum replaced their wood with galvanized steel channel and every where it was welded is rusting and it is going to be almost impossible to sand blast effectively so in about ten more years it will have to be removed and redone including all the support framing.

Great job, keep the faith
Tom Bowser

[Mark Sarsfield]

Very nice work.  Sorry I couldn't be there after all.

[MWALLEN]

Gotta love the cans and cans of wasp spray.

I had 4 partial cans and 4 full cans.  I knocked down 2 huge nests again...one with the nasty red wasps.  I had to give that one both barrels.

Other wasps stayed put until it stopped raining and the sun came out.

[Rick]

let me clairify a little on this one.   I spent about 30 minutes out there and threw 3 or 4 old planks of wood off the deck.  All the credit goes to my volunteers for their hard work. 

I said it befor and I will say it again.  I cannot do this without you all...

I also want to give MarkA a special thank you for posting a picture of the special modification made to the forward deck.  The Forward Tent Assembly.   

[MWALLEN]

The Forward Tent Assembly

You can't qualify unless you can assemble one in between downpours.   

[MWALLEN]

We have scheduled another deck work day on Saturday, Sept. 20th.

Come on out.

Mark A.

[Mark Sarsfield]

I'll be out of town that weekend and the next.  Sorry.

I don't know what plans the other reenactors have.  Roger, Correy, and I have been trying to get a flame under their butts to come out and help on occassion.

[MWALLEN]

Roger, Correy, and I have been trying to get a flame under their butts to come out and help on occassion.

Yes, I saw your post on the BLHA board and I appreciate the effort.  Have they given you any reason why they won't come out...other than for the special events you guys do?  I realize that some live far off and can't make it too often...but I would hope that they could come out and help some with the deck a little more often.  Oh well...keep after them and maybe they'll get the bug too.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Of the many emails that get sent out, few people ever reply back unless it's a real topic of interest.  I assume that they read most of the messages or at least glance over them.

[MWALLEN]

Well, I'll keep including you and Correy on the emails I send out and maybe you guys can forward them on.  The farther aft we go...the hard it's going to be as there is a bunch of piping under the deck...and our head room decreases drastically...which puts us in closer proximity to the wasps.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Yeah.  I was crawling under the deck about 20 feet forward of the ATR stairwell.  It was definitely a low ceiling.  About 10 feet forward of that point Correy found a nice yellow jacket nest next to the engine room hatch.  They came out to greet him, but he got away.  Once I got settled under there, it really wasn't too bad.  It's just aft of the bridge that looks like it would be a real pain... which brings me to another thought...

I have an idea for ripping up the deck that I wanted to run by you.  What if we ran a circular saw across the planks along the sides of each cross support?  Then, we could remove the little pieces of wood that are still bolted down after the fact at a more liesurely pace - even one person could work on it without needing any real back-up.  A lot of deck can be removed in a short period of time.  They could even sand blast the boat if some of the wood pieces were still bolted down. The blasters would make quick work of the rotted pine and then you would just have to remove the bolts before painting everything.  Obviously, the walkway boards would be the last to go.  We'd also have to record where all of the deck hatches are located (approximatley) as we went along.  Let me know your thoughts.