[PUP] Ok, this list has been too quiet.

[Alan Wagner]

Well, I'll respond to #3 as well . . . . I have been remise in not doing so
earlier

"3) Are any of you doing a major boat project, building a boat, planning a
big
Trip?"

________________________________

We are still hanging in there!

As some of you may remember, I was well on the way to finish building our
Kasten designed 53' aluminum trawler when -- in April -- a freak welding
sparking bounced through a porthole and landed in a tiny bag of flammable
insulation.  The resulting fire essentially destroyed the pilothouse,
forward deck and most everything inside the hull.  Thankfully, no one was
hurt.

What was a near total disaster got worse when the insurance company started
giving us problems.  I am a trial lawyer by trade and have caused my share
of problems for insurance companies over the years, so I guess it was
payback (smile).  Rather than wait on the insurance mess to sort itself out,
we started rebuilding.  No way a little fire was going to stop us!
Thankfully, the boat turned out not to be a complete loss.  The aft part of
the boat was pretty much unscathed.  We had the hull cleaned out and a
metallurgist tested parts of the hull, ran some fire experiments to
determine the integrity of the hull and the strength of the aluminum where
the fire had been the hottest.  Thankfully, almost all of the hull could be
re-used, with just a small portion up near the bow thruster tube that needed
to be cut out and replaced.  As it turned out, my decision at the outset of
the build to "upsize" the plate thickness when the precise type and
thickness of plate was not available, may have helped save the day.  The
rebuild could start with, essentially, the the hull intact.

The forward deck and pilot house all went to scrap, and the main and wing
engines were toast, but thankfully none of the electronics or appliances had
been installed and, for instance, my 16K of recently purchased TVs, flat
screens, and audio equipment was on a pallet and not in the boat.  If the
fire had been a week or ten days later, it would have been a lot more costly


The insurance company finally caved in and paid after I hired a Canadian
lawyer (it is always humbling for a lawyer to have to go and hire a lawyer!)
  The check came last week.  The builder was wonderfully helpful throughout
the entire process in dealing with the insurance company, assisting our
lawyer, pushing and complaining to the insurance agent, and has also been
very good to us in the rebuild.  Since they had "done it before," as the
saying goes, the builder told us that the rebuild would go much faster --
and it has.  We are almost back to where we were: the new engines are on
sight, the pilothouse is back, I have a deck again, the hull has been tested
 repaired, and insulated, the wood is being reinstalled, and the carpenters
and electricians are hard at work again.

I think we will be in the water by spring or early summer . . . .  time for
us to head north to see "our baby" again.  Having risen from the ashes that
threatened to consume her, we are thinking about renaming her "Phoenix,"
after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes as well.  I will report
back after we see her in the next few weeks.

By the way, thanks to all who earlier wrote to console us after the fire.  I
may not have responded to everyone, but the group's kind thoughts and
sympathies were very touching and meant a lot to both Debbie and I.  It is
really weird having a group of friends that you have never met and with whom
you have only exchanged e-mails.

Alan



Alan Wagner
Tampa, Florida
"Morning Delight"  1978, 44' Gulfstar MC
Building "Passage of Time" or maybe "Phoenix," who knows!
Kasten designed 53' aluminum passagemaker
http://kastenmarine.com/valdemar52.htm