The work continues

Its been a while since the last post and a lot has happened at Trenton Boat Works. For those of you who might have missed it, Mercer Queen officially got her name back in October during an unprecedented double Nor'easter. The event was featured as the headline in the Trenton Times (link to story) that day and we had quite a turnout of friends and strangers alike. Like Odysseus of old, I must have angered Poseidon with my hubris because it has rained every Saturday since then.

In the meantime, work in the yard has come to a screeching halt, mainly because I am now gainfully employed. Just as well because I seem to work in three distinct modes of operation; reading, writing and doing, and they all go in a cycle. I was leaving the "doing" phase and entering the "reading" one just as I put the boat up for the winter. Mercer Queen is up on blocks in a barn in Cream Ridge, her bilge full of salt and the boiler full of anti-freeze. Now reading is winding down and it's time to start the writing again, and that includes new drawings. There's the new engine to finally draw up, and I'm planning on a modification to the boiler in the spring. I'm also wanting to start some new builds, first a new rowboat for my mother to replace the one that was stolen last September, and the other is for a new sailboat.

I'm a little iffy on the sailboat. I know I can design it, but building one is another matter. It would need to be so much more exact then a power boat so its unlikely to get built in the backyard. When we built Mercer Queen it was either level or straight at any given time, but never both together, so close examination would betray some inconsistencies in the build. That wouldn't be acceptable in a sailboat, especially one I would plan to race. So I'm casting around for a place to build it, preferably one with a level floor. We'll see how it turns out.

Yesterday I went to see the re-enactment of the first Battle of Trenton and I must saw it was an emotional experience. To see the formations and hear the muskets and cannon echo through the streets put a lump in my throat to think of the conviction of the men in that battle. We think that all of that happened so very long ago, but it was only 15 years after that battle that the first steamboat sailed from Trenton down the Delaware. Taking pictures with a digital camera only drove home the sensation of how far and how quickly technology has advanced since that day and one cannot think but that our progress owes a great debt to the men that fought on that day. From the water mill that once stood hard by the battle to the networks which make this publication possible, the shots fired from the ranks of musket can still be heard, clear as the day they were fired.

With winter hard upon us here in Trenton, its too cold to work in the machine shop for now. It would take a full 20 lbs of propane for a day's work, but that makes this the perfect time for drawing up new designs and revising the old. I'll be posting the new designs for the engine as soon as they come out. Soon my writing phase will be over and I'll get itchy to start building something again and after yesterday, I feel that it's my patriotic duty to make it a beaut!