Jack Sheehan completed conversion of his 1987 Johnson on Feb. 5 with the installation of an aluminum sprit, hood cover and bulkhead. The boat will be named “Scooty Puff,” a nod to the animation cult classic Futurama.
Jack still has a wee bit of rigging to accomplish, but the bulk of the conversion spanned just two weekends.
- Day one involved cutting the deck and existing bulkhead.
- Day two was focused on installation of a new bulkhead 61 inches forward of the board box on the starboard side. This bulkhead is removable, an innovation brought to the class by the builders at scowsailing .com. (Framing has no disadvantages over tabbing because stress on the sprit bulkhead is mostly vertical and athwartship, with an occasional forward forward thud when the sprit is launched.)
- Day three involved bolting the sprit hood in place so the pole was in compliance with scantling.
The conversion team at Scowsailing.com used heaters and fans inside a tented cockpit to cook the epoxy paste holding the frame around the bulkhead.