A Good Week at the Office and Enjoying Louisiana

Good evening!
This post is from Eric H

I have been working on a boat that is going to be going to Uganda for the last little while and I was told that I am able to put up a couple pictures of the renderings for y'all to see. The boat itself wont be done till I have left Metal Shark after these two months, but I was told by its designer that he would send me videos of testing and its use!

One thing that is very different between a computer screen and the production floor is the sheer scale of these things. I had been working on a 36 foot dive support vessel for the USN and on paper it didn't seem all that large, but then i went out today and saw the vessel on the production floor (the first one is going to be done with welding at the end of this week) and realized how large 36 feet actually is. Especially for a trailerable boat. Its going to be a nice boat, a bit ungainly to look at, but a cool work boat regardless.

Another boat that I worked on was a 25 foot vessel for the USN that is going to be used for oil spill cleanup. It is a little tiny boat compared to the 36 foot vessel but it still really cool. The cockpit (since it is a closed center console) is a tiny little compartment but both Connor Bennett and myself agree that the cockpit looks like Darth Vader's mask (its kinda really awesome ^.^ ). I enjoy the work I'm doing here so much.

Also I was on the shop floor for a bit tonight measuring what a piece of metal should have been cut to so that I could fix it and re-send it to the router shop. Its a pretty awesome job that I have as an internship.

Anywho, i think thats enough for tonight because I need things to talk about later!

I have included some more photos with captions below. =]



Below are some photos that i took from my office and on the road of sunrises and sunsets:

Now for some more boats ^.^

Please note the fellow on the stern gunwale who is watching to make sure it didn't hit the truck or Connor Bennett's mustang

One of the HSMST target boats attached to a tow hitch

And finally a few more random shots:

The tailgate says "Candy Dripper 3." I don't even know where this came from, it was just in the parking lot a few days ago.

TJ getting materials from the inside of the boat for welding practice during lunch

About two seconds later the arc was struck so I snapped a quick photo and then looked away really really fast, lol

Well I hope to have entertained again this evening, and I hope that y'all have a good one!

Signing off,
Eric Harris

Still going well

Like Eric, I too do not have much new to report at the end of this week. The weather has been very nice this week. It has been in the 60's or 70's every day. The 38 Defiant that I was working on last week has since left the welding shop and moved on to rigging. We are now working on building another one of the exact same boats. This week, I have worked on setting up the ribs for the boat, building two swim platforms, and building some boxes for inside the cabin. Today, we started building the pilothouse for the boat. As far as what I am actually doing on these projects, it's about the same as it was before. Tack welding, fitting, grinding and cutting. I have started to learn how to weld though. I have to learn during lunchtime, but one of the guys on our crew has been teaching me how to do it. Well, like I said, not much new this week.

T.J. Brackin

A Small Post From a Quiet Week

Good Evening my dearest readers!

I do not have that much to report in terms of what has been going on these last couple days, or week or so, or however long it has been. The start of this week was vaguely dreary since it was foggy the entire way to work and a little cold. Starting this week i was finishing up work on a data package that was being sent to the navy shortly thereafter. And all in all it was a lot of work but I enjoyed learning about the process.

Most of the time after that, i spent time working pieces into the program that we have to cut the pieces out of the sheet metal and creating drawings for production. I have been doing a lot of work on a new boat, which is a 24 foot boat for Uganda.

This morning was rather hilarious, since my room mate TJ woke up 10 minutes before we had to leave. He is usually an early riser and watching him be sorta messed up all day long becuase he woke up weird has been amusing.

Aside from the following photos, that is all, everyone!

Eric Harris

 This is the mail jeep that services rural deliveries

 This is one of the RB-S' on a trailer

One of the 38 Defiants being rigged

The Webbies go to Baton Rouge

So, I know I said I would be updating the blog at the end of the week, but I have a special blog to do so I figured that I would just post it now.

This weekend, we got ourselves out of the apartment and went for a little day trip to Baton Rouge. We were joined by my classmate Alex Wilson who happens to be Eric’s girlfriend. Baton Rouge is only about an hour away from Lafayette, so we had plenty of time to explore and see the sights.

A vehicle we saw on our trip. We felt it was only necessary that everyone else see the RV towing a truck which is carrying a motorcycle in the bed and a boat on the roof.

Our first stop was an old southern plantation known as Houma’s House. The property features a spectacular garden with lots of ponds and waterfalls. We didn’t actually go into the mansion, but we walked all around the grounds and through the gardens. (We figured that since we already live in a mansion back at school, it wasn’t worth an extra $10 to go see another one.)

First, the house:

Not a bad back porch

To the gardens!

Doesn't everyone have a gazebo on top of a waterfall?

Another waterfall

Me!

Yes, another waterfall

We decided that the sign was funny.

The happy couple

A bathtub under a horizontal tree

A cool looking bell

One of several other buildings on the property

Bird House

There was a cannon. A picture seemed necessary. 

Bad day to be a gnome

An even bigger gnome, still not faring any better than the last one

A leprechaun

Another cool bell

Eric and I with a thinker

Eric next to a monstrous tree

The hobbit in his natural habitat

The tree grew itself into the ground

?

I think someone stole the idea from the Webb Institute.

Alex and I at the fountain

Next, we decided we were hungry for lunch. Fortunately, we found a great restaurant only a mile and a half away from the plantation. The restaurant was called The Cabin. It is a 150 year old slave cabin that has been turned into an authentic Cajun restaurant. Eric had Crawfish Etoufee. Alex had gumbo, jambalaya, and black-eyed peas. I had gumbo and red beans and rice. We also split an order of fried alligator. We all enjoyed our food and the atmosphere of the restaurant was neat too.

Finally, we decided to head into the actual city of Baton Rouge. Not knowing where else to go, we decided to drive to LSU’s (Louisiana State University) campus and walk around for a while. The school has a large, beautiful campus and we all enjoyed a taste or “real college” for a change.

Well, I think that about covers our adventures in Baton Rouge. Hope you enjoy the photos and I’ll hopefully post again sometime towards the end of the week. I leave you with some shots of the sunset over the bayou.

 T.J. Brackin