My main hobby is building boats.
I started when I was 13 and have now completed 7 boats. This latestest is the biggest of them all. It is the 17' model of the first one I built when I was 13. That one was 15'. To the right are a few of the pictures of the now completed project. Below is a picture of me piloting my first boat. It was taken in 1971 at Curtin Hope Marina. You'll notice I didn't include the windshield or the fixed seat on my most recent build. This is an age thing. At 65+ I'm not spry enough to climb over and around a windshield to reach the front cleat.
My wife spied this 1956 Lyman for sale along the road. So, for father's day a couple of years ago she decided to get it for me. I really like the looks of it. The engine runs but smokes like crazy. I've since repowered it with a 25hp Yamaha. I have the boat in my shop at the moment. All the ribs need replacement. In the bilge under the floorboards there is a little too much rot for comfort so I decided to make this my current project. I have the passenger area cleared. I'll post pictures as I progress.
January 2022 update. I have half of the ribs replaced. It goes a little faster after some trial and error with steam bending the ribs. Now that I have the middle section complete I can work 3 ribs fore and aft concurrently.
I inherited my mother-in-law's piano about three years ago. I've been taking lessons at Dreamsuite academy in New Egypt. I've managed to progress from not knowing a thing about music to being able to read and after many iterations, playing some.
I have a few lionel trains given to me by my grandfather over 60 years ago. I've set them up at Christmas but have always wanted to give them a more permanent home. I now have the time. I'll post my progress here. Step 1 is to clear a space in the basement.
Update - I decided to make space in the garage. It felt less like a dungeon. I read quite a few books on creating layouts but I decided on using hollow core doors as described in "Easy Lionel Layouts You Can Build" by Peter H. Riddle. I used three doors and mounted them on saw horses 38" high.