Creating a Harmonica Shantyboat

Well, i can hear you saying: "what the heel is a shanty boat?". It's true that we don't really have a shanty boat tradition as they have in the US of A. During the Depression Era, we did have shanty towns. Every major town areas where the poor and unemployed would build rough shelters from corrugated iron, hessian cloth and found timbers. Well shanty boating emerged from the same tough economic conditions, except that shanty boaters traded and fished on the river throughout the US. Harlan Hubbard has a great book on the topic, but a more concise description follows:- "There were scores of shantyboats moored to the banks of the river, where you could find all the gamblers, the poor, the unemployed, the fishermen, and the drunks living at the edge of society". Reference: https://peoplesriverhistory.us/blog/tell-us-about-shantyboat-communities/ So, what guides me in my shanty boat build is to be unique, use cheap or recycled materials, aim for comfor...

Spending Time in Nature: "biophilia as an innate, genetically based affinity for the living world, manifested in an “urge to affiliate with other forms of life” such as grasslands, trees, and animals (not explicitly other humans)" Solitude from psychology today: "Now, more than ever, we need our solitude. Being alone gives us the power to regulate and adjust our lives. It can teach us fortitude and the ability to satisfy our own needs. A restorer of energy, the stillness of alone experiences provides us with much-needed rest. It brings forth our longing to explore, our curiosity about the unknown, our will to be an individual, our hopes for freedom. Alonetime is fuel for life".

Well, that big hardware chain still had no 1/2" c grade ply, so I got 3/8" ply instead. Its ok, that's what Harmonica designer Jim Michalak wrote. Now I'm good to start making bulkheads. There are four all together; bow, stern, front of cabin and one divider just forward of the galley/WC section. They're identified by their respective distances from the bow. Spent so far, $140. More later.

Went hardware shopping today, only to find that B®©©»*gs had a special on 1/2" contruction grade ply. At $39 it must have sold like hotcakes. I had options but ... * 3/8" ply was a dollar more expensive and some kind of misadventure during handling saw every one of thirty or more sheets were severely warped. * 1/2" marine grade ply was $72/  per and that certainly took me aback. Besides, I think its against the Shantyboat Builders' Code to pay that much for lumber. * 1/2" "non-structural" ply was on offer for $42. It *looked* all right but as I stood reflecting on the possibilities, my mind went to dark places, or was that underwater? So, I bought a packet of screws and some (self-proclaimed) grade wood glue called "Gorilla". It boasted being "exterior grade" and "waterproof". Well its a start, I suppose.

Length 13 feet, 5   feet wide, draw ing less than a foot. Weighing less than  400lbs empty, designed by Jim Michalak.     "Harmonica is a tiny shanty boat that sleeps two in its cabin. There is a porch up front suitable for lounging and a small room in the stern for the kitchen and the water closet. I think it is arranged so that two people could wait out an all day soaker without feeling too pressed. For protected waters only". Builder John wrote, "...The entire family (two adults and two children) has spent the night on Steel Will. I put 1x2's between the slats in the two forward bunks and created a single bunk that is five feet wide. We have found that the thick cushions sold to cover lawn furniture very adequate mattresses for boats." Harmonica soaks up four sheets of 3/8" plywood and six sheets of 1/4" plywood and uses simple glue and nail jigless construction. Reference for all the above: https://www.duckworks.com/product-p/jm-harmonica...

 "...soon as night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up—nearly always in the dead water under a towhead; and then cut young cottonwoods and willows, and hid the raft with them.  Then we set out the lines.  Next we slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool off; then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee deep, and watched the daylight come.  Not a sound anywheres—perfectly still—just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a-cluttering, maybe."             Huck Finn I have the extravagant (not) plans to  build a Michalak "Harmonica", a tiny towable shantyboat. I've recently taken to paddling my local river and remain surprised at the glorious existance literally on our doorstep, that no one treasures. In fact, I'd argue that most men of the land actually hate rivers. They invariably turn their backs on it, and worse dump rubbish in it and allow ...