Fall 2005 Update

What's to say? Once again I've been shamelessly errant in updating the website. Part of it is due to the fact I haven't really done anything to the boat for months, and part of it is all the stuff I have been doing since late last winter besides working on Puff.

I did put in many hours working on the Columbia 5.5 Meter Boat over the spring and summer, but it hasn't been launched yet, and is now back somewhere below the 'top of the list'.

Most of my time these past months has been spent in starting and promoting an 'official' business, doing what I've been doing all along anyway, but now with the blessings of the county and state licensing agencies, and a real shingle hung out on the gate. I have long been doing custom woodworking, primarily by word of mouth; lately there hasn't been quite enough 'mouth' out there to bring in any surplus funds for things like boat building. I decided in the interests of finishing this boat in my lifetime, and domestic harmony in general, to promote the business in both the official and promotional sense. Along with authoring yet another webpage -- for Emkay Woodcrafting-- I spent many months designing and building a stock of spec furniture with the plan of placing pieces in galleries and local shows. I built about two dozen pieces over the spring and summer, in a variety of styles from rustic Southwest stuff made from reclaimed lumber, to fine furniture, with an emphasis on Mission-inspired designs.

My gallery debut won me a First Prize for a Southwest hall table, and my public debut was at the local Sierra Vista "Art In the Park" juried show. I was lucky enough to be awarded one of 220 booth spaces. The two-day outdoor show was very successful, with about 30,000 people coming thru. I sold about half the furniture on hand, and earned several lucrative commissions for custom furniture.

At any rate, my total attention has necessarily been on this new enterprise, and not Puffin. I have to admit there was a bit of burn out involved as well. I've gone aboard a few times and given thought to the next projects, taken measurements and made lists. There is a great deal of 'thinking' when the boat does grab my attention.

Some work was performed since the last update, mostly surrounding the engine and engine room. I installed some fresh air ducting and a bilge blower, I worked on the lazarette, I installed a thru-hull or two, the raw intake water filter and associated plumbing (altho the engine is not fully plumbed yet). I've pecked away at the preparatory work for some systems, the exhaust, fuel, electrical, fresh water etc. I fitted all the cockpit plywood panels and built the curbing that surrounds the engine hatch, altho I won't epoxy the sole sections in until I'm more or less done in the engine area.

In summation, some progress has been made, but really nothing that warrants any pictures, it all pretty much still looks the same, except there's a thick layer of dust over the entire boat, inside and out. A very good clean-up will be the first thing I do. I'm starting to feel the urge to resume work, so hopefully I can find some time for poor Puff, with the new woodworking concern demanding most of my attention.

Once again, I appreciate all the notes and letters I've received. It's partly the nagging I get from all of you that inspires me to sit down and update the page, as infrequent as it is. If I didn't answer you, it's probably because my old computer died a sudden death a few months back, and I lost much information. The address book was recovered, but all the emails were lost.

I'm also planning to relocate the website to be an adjunct of my business website, to keep it all on one server. For now the business site (hosted by a different ISP) will mirror the Puff pages, but at some point I'm hoping to dump my ISP and move up from the 28.8 dial-up I'm stuck with. The Puffin site has been a 'personal page' on my ISP, The River, so if I move on, the Puff page has to move as well. One reason I haven't dumped The River is because they host this website free.

OK, stay tuned, and thanx once again for all the support and interest out there! Mike