After years of dreaming, months of planning, zillions of phone calls for quotes and innumerable diagrams and faxes and measuring. Yes I measured everything 3 times. We ordered the covering and after 6 weeks it arrived in Campbell River, 3 hours by water away. Using our family mentor’s fish boat and herring skiff we picked up the entire building “kit” in one load

Steaming home with the next phase of the “project”.

We unloaded the trusses onto the boatshed float and organized the components.

There was just enough room to assemble each arch inside the boatshed walls.

And the first arch went up. It was pretty exciting to start to feel the size of the covered space. It was raining, of course, and our old fisherman friend, Dennis, declared, “I think it’s a little drier in here already”.

Our son, Tavish, accustom to climbing the rigging of a tall ship at sea didn’t have any trouble retrieving our crane’s hook line.

Then the second arch was up and we could start to join the arches with the connecting purlons.

We stopped for a meal break and admired our handy work. We are also getting use to the new feature in our landscape.

Because we had limited reach with the boom on the fishboat we had to place the fabric which weighed about 700 pounds on the structure when we had about 1/3 of the trusses up.

The fabric is very specifically folded and must be placed in the right spot. It is unrolled from the ridgeline to the ground.

Here the fabric is in place and awaiting unfolding along the lengthwise axis of the building. We lashed the fabric down to ensure it didn’t blow away whilst we assembled the rest of the building.

Finally the B.C. Pioneer was forced out of the “slot” and its work was done. We had lots of final tightening to do on all the bolts and we drilled and bolted the “feet” of the trusses so they became securely attached to the steel wall structure.

So! We were making great progress. The steel structure is completed and the fabric is ready to unfold and the gate which adds rigidity to the end walls is finished. BUT! the shipyard called on short notice and we had to drop our tools and head 14 hours south with the Columbia III for our annual spring haulout and inspection. Darn! So close to completion! Just a few steps to go. We have to unfold the fabric and winch it all tight. We have to unstep the masts on the Columbia III and install hinging mast bases and THEN! we can slide her into her new home. Unfortunately there will be no rest as we are behind on our regular spring maintenance because of all this boat shed construction. We will be very busy for the next 6 weeks!

 

But first we have to get to the shipyard, get painted and inspected and get home so we can continue!