Practical Motor-Boating 



III. — The proper housing, rigging and. the 

 care of a motor boat when it is not in use 



By George M. Petersen 



PROBABLY the greatest obstacle which 

 confronts the motor-boat owner is 

 that of taking proper care of his boat 

 when not in use. Of course, in a river, 

 harbor, or in any protected water it is a 

 simple thing to arrange to moor the boat 

 out in the open and provide some sort of a 

 canvas or rubber cover for it. 



To cover a boat in this manner it is neces- 

 sary to erect a piece of ^-in. galvanized 

 pipe on both the forward and after deck and 

 stretch a piece of galvanized chain between 

 them, using a shackle at one end so that the 

 chain can be readily removed when the boat 

 is to be used. These are shown in Fig. 17. 

 The slack in the chain may be taken up by a 

 turnbuckle at the after stanchion. The 

 chain forms a ridge about 6 in. higher than 

 the cockpit amidships, so that any water 

 striking the canvas cover will immediately 

 run overboard. The cover itself may be 

 made of 12-ounce duck and provided with 

 grommets which engage turn buttons on the 

 outside of the weatherboard when the cover 

 is pulled into place. This rigging will pro- 

 tect a boat not only in very rough weather, 

 but also from the spray which splashes from 

 the boat during a heavy blow. Of course, 

 if one has the money, time, and inclination, 

 he may build a boat-house, as shown in 

 Fig. 18 and 19, or he may build a combina- 

 tion house-boat and boat-house as shown in 

 Fig. 20. When building the boat-house, it 

 is advisable to paint the inside of the 

 pontoons with heavy asphalting paint 

 before decking them over. Oil barrels may 

 also be used in place of the pontoons, but as 



they are rather expensive and sometimes 

 difficult to keep in position, the pontoons 

 are generally considered to be more satis- 

 factory. Of course, where logs are readily 

 obtained, they are the most desirable, but 

 even the logs should be stripped of their 

 bark and given a coat of hot linseed oil and 

 two or three coats of good lead and oil paint 

 to keep them from becoming water soaked 

 and to prevent them from sinking. 



A duplex block may be suspended from 

 an overhead beam and attached to a sling 

 passed around the hull and the boat lifted 

 up as in Fig. 20 A. Where a boat-house is 

 not used, however, the boat must be re- 

 moved from the water by means of a car, 

 skids or rollers, as in Fig. 21, 22 and 23. If 

 any one of these three methods is employed 

 the boat may be secured either by blocking, 

 as in Fig. 24 A, by scissor arms, B, board 

 shoring, C, tackles, D, or hinged shores, E. 

 Care should be taken to see that the shoring 

 does not rest on any one plank in the hull 

 but on several planks immediately over a 

 rjb, so that in case the hull should receive a 

 sudden jar no serious damage will result. 



When putting a boat into commission the 

 first thing to do is to remove all loose paint 

 and go over her planking in search of dry 

 rot, substituting new material wherever 

 necessary. It is sometimes necessary to 

 remove the old paint entirely before giving 

 the usual one or two coats of fresh paint. 

 If the boat has blistered, if the color is to be 

 changed from dark to light, or if there is so 

 much paint on the hull that another coat 

 will not look good, the old paint should be 



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