Update from the rigging department

As I told you all the last time I wrote, I am no longer working in the welding department. Now, I am working in the rigging department. The rigging department is responsible for putting everything else in the boats that is not installed by welding. Generally, this includes all electrical wiring and components, engines, seats, non-skid, and pretty much anything else you can think of that you need to have on a finished boat. 

So far, I have worked on two different boats in the rigging department. The first boat that I worked on was the U.S. Coast Guard RB-S, aka the Response Boat-Small. This is the 29 foot pilothouse boat that was also the first boat I worked on in the welding department. In fact, I began rigging on the exact same boat that I had welded on, RB-S # 29. Things got moving rather slowly with the RB-S crew for me. For the first two days that I was there, I really didn't get to do much but watch what they were doing. Slowly but surely though, I got to do a little bit more as the week progressed. The slow start is understandable though because this crew has been working on thirty of these boats, so they are all in a system and really didn't need any outside help. Despite the slow start though, I really did learn a lot during my time with the RB-S crew.

The boat I am currently working on is the 38 foot Defiant for the Bangladesh Coast Guard. I started on this boat on Wednesday of this week when we returned from the Mardi Gras holiday. This is only the third Bangladesh boat that this crew has rigged, so there was plenty of work that I could help out with. Immediately I was involved with running and putting the protective sheathing around wires, installing lights and fans, installing rub rails and many more little tasks around the boat. I was certainly not bored. Then yesterday, I got to be a part of putting the collar on the boat. This was not a whole lot of fun. The collar is the large foam ring that goes around the gunwale of the boat to protect the boat when docking or boarding. The collar is made of a vinyl outer shell with large pieces of foam stuffed into it. The vinyl is thread into tracks on the side of the hull, and the foam is then stuffed inside the shell. Putting the collar on is a very violent process. After the vinyl shell gets into the tracks, the foam is basically just beat into place with large paddles. Those who are not beating the foam with paddles have to hit on the foam that is already inside the collar with rubber mallets. After several hours of this, one can certainly see how it could become very tiring. But, once again, working on the Bangladesh taught me a lot about the rigging of a boat, and let me get some real hands-on experience with what these guys have to do every day. 

As I mentioned, in between my work on these two boats was the Mardi Gras holiday. Metal Shark gave all of its employees the day off on Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras, which meant that I had a four day weekend. My mom and my uncle decided to come celebrate and spend the weekend in Lafayette with me, and we had a really great time. We tried every kind of local Cajun food that we could, listened to a Grammy award winning Zydeco band, and even did a swamp tour. We had an awesome weekend, and none of us were real excited about going back to work on Wednesday. 

Well, that's about it. As of now, there is only another week and a half before we pack up and head for home. Eric and I will be finishing work on Wednesday, February 27. I will be flying home to spend the weekend with my family before I return to Webb on Sunday. I'll be posting at least one more time before we leave so check back sometime at the end of next week!

 - T.J. Brackin