The Last Dash

October 11th has come and gone, and I am still sorting out my impressions of the Ship Shape project at Shake-A-Leg Miami. I spent a lot of time reviewing my 300-plus photos as I prepared a slide show for the SALM booth at IBEX, and I think they tell a great story about volunteers coming together to learn new skills and to contribute some serious elbow grease to the program.

If you would like to see my pictures, click here.

I especially want to thank our industry partners, including Bill Lindsey (Star brite), Joe Purtell (Interlux), Steve Morton (Performance Marine Coatings), and Norman Katz (Katzscan) for their support.

So, what did we accomplish? Here’s the tangible stuff: We painted topsides, boot stripes, and bottoms of two Freedom 20s. Number Two is our “Fighting Lady Yellow” vessel, and Hagen’s Hope (Number Eight) is our red-white-and-royal-blue sloop.

They both now outshine any other boat in the the SALM fleet, with the possible exception of our Green Machine Access dinghy. Soon those Freedoms will be back in the water, and they will be beautiful to behold out on Biscayne Bay.

We also did a lot of work on Access dinghies, proving how well a little well-applied paint can give new life to an old hull. We did a lot of stripping and sanding, and soon those dinghies will be restored to their original interior colors.

What else? Many of us who took part in several of our paint-a-thons gained some new friends and enjoyed nurturing those connections. One thing in particular that drew us together was the ever-changing landscape of our work area and our work assignments. Creativity reigned, as we often had to solve immediate problems that went far beyond how much reducer we needed for the best possible flow.

We dealt with hot weather, locked-up tools, shortages of supplies, and who to call for pizza. We drank an excessive amount of Coke Zero, wore pirate bandanas (well, some of us did), learned more than we ever wanted to know about differing types and grades of sandpaper, and learned that masking tape is our friend.

We “egyptianed” 20-ft boats from side yard to hangar and back again. We panicked when our brushes lost hairs and our rollers crumbled. We learned to work fast to beat the heat, and we learned to work in teams, reminding each other that there is no “you” in team.

We learned what a difference having the right tools and the best support can make to a project. We learned that gloss is more than a state of mind.

I hope that every volunteer who took part at any point in the project will continue to participate in Ship Shape.

On the other hand, for a number of reasons, we did not achieve our goal of completing top-coat work on all nine Freedoms. And I’m not sure we really achieved our goal of establishing a core group of volunteer stewards for the fleet, people who are dedicated to learning the fine art of boat maintenance and repair and equally dedicated to passing on their skills. But maybe. I know this weekend we’ll have a few “regulars” at work in the hangar, preparing more Access dinghies for painting, and I hope that will continue every weekend.

Also, I did not achieve my own work-related goal of developing any new content for ProBoat E-Training, and that’s a big disappointment to me. At some juncture during our count down, the focus of the project shifted from process (training) to product (painting). There are a number of reasons why that happened, and I know most of them by heart. I often left the worksite feeling discouraged because of that shift, but I never left without being thankful and happy to have met so many great volunteers and associates.

By the way, the event on Oct 11 was a great success, with a wonderful swarm of people enjoying a balmy night at Shake-A-Leg Miami, tasting Kiwi BBQ and sushi, thoroughly enchanted by their visit to the Gateway to Biscayne Bay.

 

Thanks to everyone who took part in this first Phase of the Ship Shape Project. I hope we’ll have many more chances to meet and work together for the good of the Shake-A-Leg Miami community.

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Boat Painting Boogie

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U R Great

Last weekend we had students from Barry University and University of Miami on site for a few hours, and both U’s were great. The group from Barry were players and coaches from the women’s basketball team, brought to us by Coach Bill Sullivan.

We had hoped to put them to work wet-sanding the dinghies and prepping them for primer, but I was told on Friday the we needed to move all sanding to the side area closer to a containment drain. We decided that would make it too difficult to bring out enough power sanders — and supervisors — so we switched to Plan B.

By the time the Barry crew arrived, Ship Shape Team members Emma & Jill had put together four kits of Star brite cleaning products, and we sent the ballplayers down to the docks to spark up as many boats as they could before Saturday morning sailing classes began.

I was amazed at the difference when they were done. Then we put them to work at a couple more cleaning projects near the Hangar, and soon added a group of  U of Miami students to the mix as we restored the color of a lot of kayaks that had gone from bright to faded.

Student Kayak Brighteners at Work

We would have been glad to keep them working all day, but more entertaining pursuits called them, and the Hangar seemed unusually quiet and dull for the rest of the weekend.

Joe Purtell (Interlux) arrived in the early afternoon to bring us more product and to look at the Fighting Lady Yellow hull once again. After his analysis, we decided to go ahead with sanding again, to add one more coat. Fortunately, we made that choice while the students were still on hand so we could enlist them to push the boat (cradled, on wheels) out to our work area.

We also got to try out Interlux InterStrip to take the chipping red, blue, and yellow paint coats off the interiors of the Access dinghies.  The combination of InterStrip, elbow grease, and powerwashing did most of the work, but more sanding remains before we can restore the original ‘Popsicle’ colors.

Powerwashing

By Sunday afternoon, we were down to one volunteer, John Quigley, and myself, which seemed especially odd in comparison with the earlier lively gang. I had to wonder, again, what I was doing there at Shake-A-Leg Miami, and I will admit to being very discouraged.

My plan had been to facilitate a training program, to create a corps of volunteers who would learn maintenance, coatings, and repair in a somewhat logical fashion. That’s what I would call “process.”  Instead, I found myself worrying about finishing work on the two sloops and five dinghies before our reception on the 11ths. That’s what I would call “product.”

I also felt that Shake-A-Leg Miami’s administration and Board of Directors had not yet understood the fact that the fleet needs much more than a facelift. My surveyor Pat Kearns (Naples, Florida) had found some problems that were keeping both of us awake at night.

On my way home, I stopped to visit with SALM board member, disabled sailor Kerry Gruson, and that’s when I started to get my energy back.  The next step, for me, was to begin investigating who in the Coast Guard might have the engineering experience we needed to take a closer look at the sailboats, which are typically not covered by the mass of regulations that apply to power boats.

The move that brought me back into peace of mind, though, was the news that SALM had taken the pro-active step of pulling the two oldest sailboats out of the water, and had started removing hardware and rigging, so those boats cannot be sailed until properly repaired.

Few 20 year old boats have had the ongoing use (and and lack of routine maintenance) that these Freedoms have had. Pat and I discussed this last night and came to the conclusion that the builders would be astounded to know how well they are actually doing!  Shake-A-Leg Miami has some important information to offer to the marine industry about the integrity of these boats, and fortunately, SALM has now shown me its own integrity by admitting that it’s time to let these tired vessels rest.

What will happen to them? We are hoping they will form the basis for some advanced training classes on structural repair and other key aspects of boat maintenance. Perhaps they will become training tools and — who knows? — may well return to the water as fine examples of “classic plastic” once again.

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Not Your Usual Boatyard

This picture, more than anything, illustrates the many worlds that converge at Shake-A-Leg Miami.

Not Your Usual Boatyard

We had just barely finished the second coat of Interlux Royal Blue when the kids arrived, swarming through the hangar in search of rest rooms and soft drinks.

A few were interested in what we were doing, but for many, it was obvious that they were used to seeing constant change in the shop area. We had a momentary panic when some of them starting leaning in toward the gloss, but that soon passed.

Personally, I had not planned to work at Shake yesterday, but then I couldn’t resist seeing that final coat go on, so I braved Miami rush hour traffic, which seemed especially horrendous for some reason, spent a lot of time trying  to find alternate routes (pretty much always a bad idea), and arrived an hour later than I had expected.

Our hard-core team of volunteers was joined by Interlux’s Joe Purtell again, and Shake’s own Ray Rautenberg. The former Newbies are Painters now. I can see it in their swagger, and I know they will never look at a painted surface in the same way again.

Yesterday reminded me of one of the things I do love about a team-painting project: The pleasant pauses while we wait for dry time or the next step to be ready. That’s when we can righteously enjoy the transformation taking place before our eyes. Of course, Shake-A-Leg Miami is all about transformation!

The count down continues. What will our final tally be on Oct 11 when we have our pre-IBEX reception?  Right now we have two Freedoms and two Access dinghy hulls finished.

I’m told that we have several large groups of volunteers joining us in the next three weeks. I’m a little concerned about how to schedule projects for them so they get the most benefit out of the experience – and we get the most work out of them!

If you want to be part of the team, click on the “volunteer” tab above, or just go right to http://shipshape.eventbrite.com.

Meanwhile, you can follow our progress in some of the photos posted here.

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What Are We Going to Do AFTER We Learn How to Paint the Boats?

Our new SST members gave me a lot of wonderful surprises all during our workshop on Friday morning.

Maybe I should cover the “no surprises” first: No surprise that the hangar was all set up just as i had requested. No surprise that people wandered in on SoFLA time, about 15 minutes late. No surprise that it was already hot at 9:00 a.m. No surprise that the traffic from Delray Beach to Coconut Grove was horrendous. (Keep in mind, that I normally work from home, and my daily commute is measured in steps, not miles.)

Here are the surprises: The noise level was annoying, but in 10 minutes our A-V guy Steve had rigged up a sound system and the whole program moved up a notch. Many more people than I expected arrived, including several staff members as well as SALM Board Member Kerry Gruson. The boat-oriented teams I had imagined rapidly gave way to skills-oriented teams, and I believe that will continue.

More surprises: The volunteers responded to my requested “volunteer to volunteer” action almost immediately. What will they do? Create training materials to help folk remember which Star brite product to use for which application.  Write up recommendations for safety and environments procedures as we start developing our team manual. Help keep the team organized and running smoothly. Offer ways for the next workshops to be even better.

The biggest surprise? Easy. That came when people started to ask me, “What are we doing to do after we learn how to paint boats?”  And then they started to suggest more topics. How about bringing someone in to show us how to make boat covers? Why not? Sunbrella is one of our sponsors, and we also have a volunteer Jack King who can make the patterns.

How about some specific safety training? How do we keep our boats clean and also respect the environment? What do we need to know about rigging the boats? How do we keep the brightwork and metal fittings shiny? Can someone teach us about woodworking?

Wow. Welcome to the world of lifelong learning and skills-based volunteering. i have joked that we are using the Tom Sawyer School of Training method here: “Oh, gosh, I’d really love to let you help me whitewash this fence . . .  .” but, but it’s even better than that.

The SST, newly hatched, is going to take on a life of its own, and I am looking forward to seeing these fledglings learn to fly. You may recall, my original idea was not to have Captains and crew, but Mothers and a clutch, and so it seems that is happening. Four people have signed on as Team Mothers, myself included, and I can already see that members are interested in seeking their own levels of excellence.

I call this a very good start, and a choice course setting. Our skills-based volunteer training will grow. Next, we’ll add more DIY training, and by winter, we should be ready for SALM to host The Landing School and Professional BoatBuilder magazine in presenting top-level boatbuilding and repair courses, onsite and online.

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Free Painting Lessons

I’m starting to think we are going the wrong-way-round to recruit volunteers by telling them what we need, rather than than telling them what they will receive. If I were to re-cast this whole promotion as a late-night infomercial, I wonder what I’d come up with for my viewing audience?

Maybe something like this: “You, too, can learn to prep and paint any size dinghy or sailboat or motor yacht with just a few easy lessons from Shake-A-Leg Miami’s Project Ship Shape. Yes, we will show you the right products to use and the latest low-tech paint application techniques. Kids, don’t try this at home. Come to Shake-A-Leg Miami and put your skills right to work where they can help the maximum number of people.

“And that’s not all. These lessons are ABSOLUTELY FREE and they will LAST FOR A LIFETIME! Operators are standing by.”

What do you think? Our next press releases may well follow that line of hucksterism as we learn to break away from volunteer-recruiting stereotypes.

Meanwhile, I am proud to announce that we already have 20  volunteers for our Ship Shape Teams (SST), including one brave soul who has agreed to be our very first Team Mother. I’m excited, and I feel a little sad for the teams who are still motherless, but that will change soon.

We’ve got a good variety of folks in our core group with a nice mix of skills and a high level of enthusiasm. Hooray!

Last night, at our first “Friday Night Potluck,” some of us talked a little about what we can do to move teams into competition with each other: Best team name, team colors, logos, songs, dances. I keep telling people: This Will Be Fun.

Meanwhile, please keep spreading the word, and the word is “free”.

Our first training session will be Friday morning, Sept. 28, at 9:30 a.m. in the Shake-A-Leg Miami Hangar. Hope to see you there! Wear comfy clothes. We’ll be learning all about boat-maintenance products from Bill Lindsey at Star brite.

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Ready, Set, Paint!

Great news! I finally won my game of “phone tag” with Interlux paint guru Joe Purtell and confirmed that Shake-A-Leg Miami does have his company’s full support.  Joe will be on site Saturday, Sept 12, to start training the first teams on paint safety and basic. Interlux will also be providing the product that we need to make it all happen.

Joe will be joined by Steve Morton from Visions East that afternoon, as we show the volunteers how to do “high transfer efficiency” (HTE) painting, namely – roll and tip.  This is a method that I learned more than a decade ago at WoodenBoat School, and I’m excited to have the chance to suit up and mess about with paint.

Steve, by the way, has also spent some time at WoodenBoat School, but as an instructor, not a staff member. I look forward to talking to him more about his experience there on the coast of Maine. One thing I can say about WoodenBoat School – great food!

My ProBoat E-Training program, by the way, is part of WoodenBoat Publications, and the School offices are now on “the porch” where I first learned how to translate from English (from marine engineers) to English (for the shop-floor crews). Now my challenge will be to translate from English (for the shop-floor crews) to English (for volunteers).

Don’t forget! If you want to volunteer, just click right here.

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