New Stove Legs

I tracked down a set of four, solid bronze, very heavy (about 2 1/2 lbs. each!), new-old legs on eBay. The Seller who sold these to me buys out new-old stock from European foundries and then sells them "retail". The legs are at least 50 years old, and probably much older according to the seller. I agree............... although, I would date them as OLD as opposed to the 50 year old range. I built up the new "undercarriage" for the Newport Stove today and mounted the legs. It turned out great! I will have to wait until I can line things up with the stove pipe before drilling and bolting it all together permanently. I will add a front panel of brass to cover the open frame of the lower "undercarriage" after it is all bolted up. Maybe if I can find a long and narrow piece of bronze ornament, I'll add that over the brass cover plate.

This stove was originally a wall mounted unit, and was never produced as a free-standing one. We are doing a "grand conversion" on it and bringing it BACK to the look of an older time.
More photos after we get it all finished up.

Vintage Horn.........New Outa' the Box!

There has been one item that has been missing from the pilot house cabin top all this time......... a proper horn! I have been searching for just the right one, one that fits the boat in style and is from the right time period. Well, I found it. Where? On eBay of course! I have made it a point to search for items on eBay in obscure places where sellers may have listed items incorrectly or under descriptions that have the item misspelled. I found this vintage boat horn listed in "Home & Gardening > Patio & Grilling > Grills & Accessories > Gas Grills". I found it using the brand name search of Perko! Well, as you can imagine, only one other person placed a bid, and it was low. I got it for a screaming bargain! The best thing about this horn is the fact that it is brand new, never used, right out of the box, and it's at least 60 years old, probably older! It is a 6 volt model with the old woven cloth covered wiring, so I will need to rewire the leads and and put in an in-line voltage reducer before we can actually use it............ small price to pay for such a fantastic piece! This horn is a match for the vintage New-In-Box spotlight that we bought last year. I can't wait to get all this stuff installed!

A day on the Bay

Yesterday the sun was out and we headed out to Mystery Bay to check on the Bernadine and see how she was doing on the mooring. A little breezy, but we had N8 along to serve as oarsman to get us out to the boat and back. We replaced the mooring line, pumped the bilges, measured the windows for curtains and cleaned up "carnage"................ That's right, the otters had been massacring fish on the aft swim deck and forgot to clean up after themselves (enough said there!)......... the cabin top was covered in "guano", along with the assortment of clam shells and crab claws. To the occasional visitor to the ocean, those otters and sea birds are so cute (enough said there!).

With more days of sunshine, we are getting closer to fitting out the exterior of the boat! At the end of the month we'll have our moorage permit and we'll start the process of finishing up our rebuild projects.

"THE CREW"

Boatload of Bronze!

Every now and then we hit the mother lode of yard sales.. On Saturday, we hit that very vein of pay dirt!
We decided to go out and hit the local yard sales as the day was looking like it would turn out to be one of those wonderful Pacific Northwest Spring days where the sun actually shines! We hit a couple of sales here in town and then decided to head out to Maristone Island to hit one that opened at 10 am. The ad said that there would be "boat stuff" as well as the usual tidbits.
Well, we got there about 10 minutes after it opened, parked by the road side, and immediately noticed a woman walking out with an old fisherman's anchor and boat light in hand....... then another fellow walked out with some old bronze boat items! I could smell the old bronze in the air! We hopped out of the car and headed down the driveway...................... OLD boat stuff everywhere!
To make a long story short, we walked away with an entire milk crate full of old bronze fittings and pieces for "yard sale prices" :)
The guy who was selling all of this boat gear said that it had been stripped from a 35 foot sailboat that had been built in 1931, in England. This puts the majority of this bronze hoard in the same time period as the Bernadine!
I haven't really gone through all of it to make decisions on what stays, what goes, what will be installed, etc., but if you check out the picture, you can see for yourself, what we hauled home!

Stay tuned.....................

Engine Book.......Flip-Flop Style!

I came across an old style blank book today and turned it into a new engine and mechanical log book for the Bernadine today. I labeled it so that the engine log starts on one side of the book, and the mechanical log on the other (you have to flip it). This actually makes the book two sided and each side is flipped over when compared to the other. I labeled it in the old style so it fits the style and era of the boat.

Stone Tiles

Yesterday I discovered a stash of some fantastic stone floor tiles over at "Waste-Not-Want-Not", the local used building supply store down the block. There were six tiles there, I bought four, and paid only $3.75 each! These are destined to find their way out to, and onto the boat........... we will use these under the Navigator Stove in the galley. The color couldn't be more perfect. We are planning to use copper sheeting for the heat shielding that will be behind the stove. When it takes on that great brown copper patina, it will match the tiles perfectly! All the materials are piling up, now we just need to get out there and start putting it all together.

New Bike Tools, Ahoy!

This afternoon I made a quick trip back over to the used building supply store across the way, to see about buying a couple of stone tiles............. the tiles were gone, but I did score a hand full of old bike tools! The tools were mixed in with a bin of loose sockets in the used tool and hardware section. Sugino, Park Tools, Bicycle Research, and a couple of no-name sockets. I'm hoping that some of them are for the outdated and vintage stuff.......my fingers are crossed!

Anchor and Campy and Lock, Oh My!

This last Saturday was the long anticipated Community Yard Sale out at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds! WooooHoooo! Lots of cool stuff, great deals and just a ton of fun. All of the fairgrounds buildings are opened up and filled with tables full of yard sale stuff, collectibles, junk, and what-not-what-have-you's. In short, Great Stuff!

Three of the treasures that I hauled home were a great old anchor, a bag of old bike parts, and a vintage padlock. We also scored a great old 1940's electric desk clock, a 1930's cast elephant on depression glass tray, a silver Egyptian scarab spoon, a 2 1/2 lb bronze cleat............ you get the idea!


I noticed an old nylon bicycle handlebar bag under a table that looked like it was full of "stuff". Closer inspection revealed 2 Campagnolo rear deraileurs, 2 Campagnolo down-tube shifters, some Campy cable routers, two sets of brakes, a Shimano Derailleur, four new-old Christophe leather toe straps and a new-old set of Christophe toe clips!!!!! Four dollars and it was "Mine, All-mine!". Great stuff!


The anchor is a small one, about 5 pounds. It's pretty unique and will end up as an anchor for the dinghy. It's old. Most likely pre-1950's, and I'm guessing 1940's on back a ways. I've never seen one exactly like it.


The lock is an old 'Independent Lock Company" lock with the original key. This will find it's way out to the boat as well. I love theses old locks. If you've got a hasp to lock, you might as well use a lock that looks like it came from the right time period.

We had a great time and now it'll be a whole year until the next one........... but until then, there's the Wooden Boat Foundation Marine Swap next month! Stay tuned...............

Just one more picture of those great Campy parts :)

...........And After.

And here the deck irons are after a good stripping, sanding and wire brushing. The big deck iron came out unscathed after it's pounding on the anvil to straighten out the lip. As you can tell, I only gave the big one a quick once over. I'll give the new 4" deck iron a much better polishing in a few days.......... but I think I'll give the old hands a little rest for now.

Two for One............untouched.

All of my want ads over the last couple of months have finally paid off! I got an email from a fellow up on Orcas Island in response to one of my "have one, need one" want ads for a bronze deck iron. He said that he had a 4" moat deck iron that he would sell me for $15.00, but I would also have to take a 5" bronze deck iron for free and pay the shipping.............. how could I say "No" to that !
Anyway, they showed up on the doorstep today. They are bronze! The 4" deck iron is in perfect shape, just needs a clean and polish. The 5" is a little tweaked on the edge and will also need a clean and polish. A little anvil and hammer work should straighten up the 5-incher just fine. The 4" iron will be for our new stove installation and the 5" will be for sale or trade, and should bring in enough to cover all the rest of the wood stove materials and pay back the cost for the 4" deck iron! The Law of Attraction and manifestation at work :)

The shot above is an "out of the box" before shot. I'll be cleaning and polishing this week...........

New Lock

I have a new lock for the rear deck, boat doors on the Bernadine. I have had the idea for some time that I would like to replace the modern, silver, Master Lock with something a bit more vintage and "brassy". Well I found one, and it cost me less than a new one at the hardware store! This lock came from an old U.S. Government Ordnance Department facility. It was made by the Wilson Bohannon Company. I don't know exactly how old it actually is, but I would guess 1960's or so. It will be secured to the boat with a brass chain and small bronze pad eye. Another small step in the right direction!

The Final Piece Of The Puzzle!

I finally located a set of deck drains to use for the aft deck remodel. I searched and re-searched all of my sources locally and kept up the search for quite some time without success............. until I spotted these babies on ebay, of course! These came off of an old sailboat that was built in Germany and scrapped in New England. They're pretty unique and, I am guessing, quite old. The base of one is stamped "Hajo", which I am fairly certain is Hungarian. A Google search turns up "Hajo" as meaning boat or ship in Hungarian. That word doesn't seem to come back to any other language, so I'm going with Hungarian for the language on this one. Hungary would also fit for a sailboat built in Germany many years ago. Who knows for sure? At any rate, these are great. I'll install one on each side of the aft well deck and pipe them together in the bilge and then overboard through a through-hull fitting. This was the last bit I was missing for the deck project. Let the deck building begin!

Pieces Of The Puzzle

Two more pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place! I now have a pedestal mount for the salon table / berth....... and a new antenna mount for the VHF radio.



The table mount is made by Garelick and is constructed out of very heavy aluminum. The ends are welded and it has machined grooves that the upper and lower tubes run in. This set up is designed to allow the table to drop down to berth height and support the weight of a person. Tough! After tons of thinking this through, I decided to go "modern" on this part of the remodel. This one, big, moving part, will take a beating and it's got to hold up. This unit will do it.



When I pulled the old VHF antenna and mount off the boat, while it was in the yard last summer, it literally came apart in my hands! Sun rot and plastic.......... never again! This mount is extra heavy duty cast and machined stainless steel and is designed to hold the extra heavy duty sized VHF antennas. I think it'll do!

It's A Small World!

With all my wheeling and dealing and hunting for the perfect treasures, I always wonder where some of this great stuff came from, what the history behind it is. I also wonder where some of the old stuff I've been selling on eBay ends up................ Well here's a little story about that :)

Last month, when I first started selling old boat stuff, and old treasures that I have been carting around forever, on eBay, I wasn't really sure what would sell and who would buy it. One of the very first things that I listed was the old boat ensign that I found in one of the drawers in the Bernadine. This ensign was the same one that appeared in several 20+ year old photos of the boat that we inherited when we bought her. This ensign was old and weathered......faded, and had seen some serious use! Not the kind of ensign that we wanted flying off of the stern today. I decided to list it in the Maritime Antiques category on eBay and see what happened. Well it ended up selling for over $20.00 !!!!! Who in the world would buy an old ensign like that? I assumed that it would be someone who wanted to use it in a nautical display or for that "vintage" look in their home decorating........... I wasn't far off of the mark!

Earlier today I received an email from the woman who bought the ensign, Kolene Spicher. She said that she had not received it. Well, after checking delivery confirmation numbers, and emailing back and forth a few times, she found it. I had mailed it to her in an over sized envelope and she was expecting a box........ well she found it in a stack of magazines that she hadn't sorted. Happy ending!

I sent her a few photos of the Bernadine and gave her the historical specs on the boat. She emailed back and said that she was a professional artist and was going to use the ensign as a studio prop for her newest line of artwork. She thanked me for the photos and history........

A Google search of her name hit on page after page of web sites that sell her artwork! She is a nationally known and well collected artist who paints in the "American Primitive" style and does lots of the old 1700's and 1800's style nautical and "Nantucket" paintings. Now it seems that the Bernadine's old ensign may find it's way into her next wave of paintings! I'll be on the lookout!

Do a Google search and check out the art galleries and on line businesses that sell and show her work! . You'll get a good idea of the art she does and how well known she is :)

Small world......... and it's all interconnected. Who would have known...................

Stove Lid Lifter

After a month of careful hunting and low bids, I scored a great little stove lid lifter off of eBay for the new Sardine Stove. I have no idea about the history behind this piece or anything about the company that made it................ It's just very cool and absolutely perfect for the new stove :)
It's great having all of these little bits of history coming together to make a new story.