Gearing up for the season
Tuesday was a cold splash of late October weather. I’m convinced that this a very pleasant month, but it is leaving a bit like a March lion.
There are lots of things to get done as our wonderful October runs out.
Sue and I took the last short cruise of the season on the Samuel Clyde on Sunday afternoon. Carl and I pulled the boat out of the lake on Monday morning and parked it in its winter spot. I hope that we won’t have a hard freeze tonight
The Samuel Clyde’s winter locale is about 150 feet above lake level.
It needs a bit of anti-freeze pumped through its lake water circulation system before it gets any colder than it was on Monday night.
Some years ago I took the Clyde out around Nov. 1 and took it over to Bob Scott’s shop for some work. We unexpectedly had a 20 degree night and the lake water side of the heat exchanger froze.
It was repairable, but it was not possible to fix it instantly and that prevented running the engine and doing some other repairs. This misfortune put projects off until the following spring, at a time when every other boat in western Onondaga and Cayuga Counties needed a fix. Sometimes the boat plans of men and boys go awry.
I went to Ace Hardware this morning and instantly recalled that this was one of Nathan’s favorite trips.
A biscuit was always waiting for him when he rushed in the door and stood up at the counter. Fortunately, the person manning the counter was not one of his best pals or did not know about his habits. I think it will be a bit tough on the old redhead if somebody asks, “Where’s Nathan?” whenever I enter the store.
Susan has a mess of spring bulbs that have yet to be placed in the ground.
Some of the previous bloomers have sort of run out of gas or have become dessert for the various creatures that like to eat bulbs. They do not continue blooming forever, but it would be nice if they would self-propagate, get bigger and “bloomier” and exhibit improved vigor and color.
That’s just a lazy gardener’s dream.
I’m working on a light cleanup of an eight-foot molded plywood dinghy built by the Skaneateles Boat Company.
It is called a Hydro Light Dinghy. Mayo Snyder had one in his barn and before he died he donated it to the Creamery boat collection.
It is in my garage, having been collected from Cooperstown by Bill Stinson last week when he went to a “do” in Cooperstown and met up with Betsey Snyder. He loaded it into his truck and dropped it off at the sawhorses in my garage when he returned.
I’ll give it a light sanding to remove all the loose dirt and grit, then give it a quick rub of linseed oil. This will even the color of the wood and create a dust-able surface when the oil is absorbed and dried. Most boat collections present the boats in the condition left by the last owner and just clean them up slightly without further finish work to make them easy to stabilize for appearance.
A working dinghy should look like it was used for a number of years.
The 8-foot molded plywood dinghies that were built by the Skaneateles Boat Company are listed by their production numbers for the years in the middle ‘40s:
1940 – 16 sold privately
1941 – 184 sold privately
1942 – 24 sold privately
1943 – 211 sold exclusively to the U.S. Navy
The records on file at the Skaneateles Historical Society are not totally complete. I am sure folks connected with the company’s shut-down never imagined that anybody would be interested in this information as local business history. However, the above list will give you a feeling that there was a lot of sawdust flying around in 1943.
The company had a number of locations over the years. I recall that when I was a teenager, they were using the cement block building that is now the Byrne Dairy in the village parking lot.
