Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/442

 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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