UNION JACK / Scott A. Ochocki /
4-9-01: I was lucky enough to find two large chunks of bronze weighing in at a whopping 230 lbs, I paid scrap price for them. I chucked them up in a giant old manual turning lathe and trued them up. I got usable dimensions for making port-hole type windows for the aft cabin and possibly the aft windows of the pilot house. There will be no nuts or bolts to the outside, instead I will thread the window frames and just fasten them from the inside. I hope to have a few extra windows if somebody is looking. 4-17-01: Went to talk with a salesman at Jone's Metal Products and showed the man stations 0-9 beautifully nested on 3-5'X10' sheets. He quoted me a price of $600, I jumped at the oppoutunity. 5-4-01: They were cut on the CNC burn-table. I drew a 6 foot human figure next to the "Nest" of the parts. All I can say is, "This is one BIG boat". I have 5 window frames cut... Will order 1/2" polycarbonate window material with Friday's paycheck. 5-8-01: Picked up stations 1-10 from the sheet metal company. The cuts were amazingly clean and are not tempered, so when I have them cut the 1/2" plate skeg they will also cut out the tank inspection covers, and I can machine on the material without trashing end mills. I anticipate plating her this summer and having the hull-flipping party next spring. 5-29-01: Finished drafting the 1/2" steel plate parts tonight. I notched the skeg and the rest of the 1/2" plate all the way to the front to correspond with the stations, now it will fit together like lego bricks. With the help of the computer and some drafting software I believe I can get the skeletal structure aligned with precision to about .010". I should be getting a price quote by tomorrow, I will again have the parts cut out with a CNC Laser-cutter. 6-27-01: Picked up the stem, skeg, rudder webs, and some other 1/2" plate parts. The were cut with a CNC laser cutter for just under $700. I've added some weight the the plans by using heavier material than called out, but it is minimal at this point. I have added a 24" wide outlines of the stations in 1/2" plate to add strength and added notches to those plates and to the stem and skeg so the parts just slip right into position without fussing with a tape measure or clamps. Recently purchased a 200 amp Lincoln wire-feed welder. I'm new to welding, but I have family that does it for a living, I will call upon them when I get started. I'm about $2800 into it now. I also picked up a heavy-duty nibbler in exchange for two days work on a friends roof. Need to work all the overtime I can to purchase the hull plating and 1/4" flat-bar. Hope I can get her erected and plated before the snow flies. 8-9-01: Have nearly everything I need to begin welding the framework together. Saving money to buy the remaining sheet-metal I'll need to finish the hull. Hoping to make it to the construction site soon, my apartment is filled with tools, steel, a welder, and I still have the blueprints covering the walls by the computer. Chose a dodge slant-six 225 ci motor for the Jack, it's a little heavy, and just slightly over the recommended power. I estimate it will burn 3-4 gallons per hour at the top end of the cruising speed. This decision was not made lightly. Located a bell-housing and I'm searching for a gear box and heat exchanger. Ordered and received the 3/16" hull and tank stiffner material and the round bar for the chine. 9-20-01: Hauled all materials, laser-cut parts, machined parts, tools, and new welder to building site. About 5000lbs so far. Welded stem, skeg, stern-tube, and 7 of 10 stations are set into their respective notches in the stem and skeg. Happy to report that I am building indoors. She looks like a boat. Make no mistake about it, this is a very large craft. Sand-blasted, primed, and painted used Borg-Warner gear, bell-housing, and water-cooled exhaust manifold to fit to dodge slant-six gas engine, but holding off until I am able to further investigate salvageable 70hp diesel. Very happy with progress, but regret to report the nasty flash-burn I received on one arm. That hurt! 10-2-01: All stations tacked in place. Over-sized chine bar (3/4") and added shear bar tacked in place, but will need a little fine-tuning. Began adding longitudinal stiffners on port side, but like an idiot forgot to notch the stations when I drafted and nested them for the CNC cutter, so I have had to cut the notches with a heavy-duty nibbler. The nibbler really growls cutting 3/16"! Mistakes have been made, nothing a little time and the right tools can't fix. 1-13-02: Sin after sin has been committed, tools broken, stations and hull-plating bent twisted and torched, but she continues to look more and more like a boat every time I get my grubby paws on her. Biggest blunder to date is that I didn't get the radius formed at the bottom of the foreward stations during drafting, so I have this incredible gap from station 5 that only gets worse foreward. Not to worry, I've already found something in my bag of tricks to achieve a fair hull in the end. The gas engine is gone forever, I picked up a 60 hp Volvo diesel! She's complete with gear and heat-exchanger and weighs in at just over 600 lbs. It's perfect! Making another trip to the building site on the 3rd weekend of January. I'll have to dig the hull out of the snowbank and get the heat on in the machine shed. I won't rest till she's in the water. 10-13-02: I moved to back to my hometown of Hendricks, Mn. I moved the existing framework from the dirt floor of a pole shed to a mobile building platform that consists of an unused running gear from a wagon with a 30 foot long and 14 inch tall I-beam mounted on top. After a long day of welding and machining I clean up the shop and roll the Union Jack in for 2 to 4 hours just about every night of the week. Amidships she has hull plating from the skeg to the shear, as with the bough, although I fell 2 feet short of the stem. This is of little consequence, the hull plating lies relatively flat for the last couple feet and should pose little difficulty. Added a 5'X10' sheet to the bottom port side of the stern last night and will do the starboard side today. Tools that I have found to be indispensable for a boat like this are: plasma cutter, smoke wrench (torch), over-head gantry, come-alongs (3-4 of them), 200 amp wire-feed welder, an array of C-clamps, a couple good grinders, a level, and last of all, a tape measure!
5-7-03: There has been substantial progress since my last correspondence, but it has been slow as of late. Hull is about 2/3 complete and the 60 bhp Volvo runs! The limiting factor has been funding. (See Customer Photos)

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