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September 28 -
December 6, 2004:
The Charity Tug Boat Playhouse Project
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PCA Polar
Region built a tug boat playhouse that was auctioned
off at the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation's
Snowflake Gala December 6th.
The concept was originally
conceived by club member Len Treeter (as sketched above), but looked as if
it was going to sink to the bottom when Len had a mishap
on his motorcycle earlier this year. Luckily Len's
recovered, but the boat was a bit behind schedule. So
Alan Bodie, a member of our Club as well as the Stollery
board, solicited the Club's help to get things afloat.
The 300+ hour project was
completed primarily by club members Alan Bodie, Len
Treeter, Ivor Lammerink, Doug Bosko, and Paul Conquest
with the help of many other members as well as suppliers
who donated materials and labour to the project.
The tug boat raised $11,000
in support of the wonderful work done every day at
Stollery
Children's Hospital. |
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And here's the abridged chronology ...
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December 5, 2004:
The maiden voyage. Not very often you see a
tug boat traveling the land-locked prairies, yet alone
being towed through a -20C snowstorm by a Cayenne and
with a top-down Boxster as the pilot vehicle. |
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November 27, 2004: A monumental day ...
with the help of a little heavy equipment, the
wheelhouse finds its way onto the deck. And with
the paint almost complete it's really looking great.
This should make some lucky kid a lot of new friends! |
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November 24, 2004: No, this is not some
unique storage system. All this stuff is weighing
down the snazzy new roof. The roof material
came all the way from Winnipeg, and is the same material
they use on Olympic running tracks. This should really
stand up to kids climbing. |
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November 23, 20044: The first hint of the color scheme emerges.
Hint, that is, because the grey is just primer.
But with a little imagination you can see that it will really
be something special. |
November 21, 2004: With only 2 weeks to go until
the auction, the fittings finally arrived from San
Diego. Luckily they weren't held up in customs!
Not having much local selection also meant some
modifications were required ... thanks to Gary at
Egbert's
Street Rods for the custom welding and polishing of
the brass telegraph base.
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November 20, 2004: Doug sands the gunnels.
Under that red primer is some of the finest maple you'll
ever see (or not see) courtesy of Woodchucks. This is a
little bigger than those teeth you're used to, eh Doug? |
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October - November, 2004: Many long
evenings are spent cutting and fitting the interior
panels and exterior pieces of the hull. Here Ivor
and Alan measuring twice, cut once, and then trim 27
times. With all the complex curves of a ships hull
it turned out to be
much more work than ever expected, but with a little
therapy we should all be laughing about it in no time. |
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September 28, 2004:
Well ... it may not look like much yet, but you
certainly get the idea of what Len
had in mind when he conceived this project and where the
project is going. The tug boat is 13 feet long and 8
feet wide, with an exterior of solid oak. A 4x4 foot solid-oak wheelhouse has
been started but has yet to be assembled.
The planning meeting saw some lively discussion on
what sort of finishings would make this functional for
kids, while at the same time making it very appealing to
bidders! We have a long list of things to get
going on, and we have our first nautical-themed item --
a large brass bell has been donated to kick things off. |
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