Cannon Want

I saw on the news last night about someone shooting a cannon ball through a neighbor’s house. It went clear through the house, but they did not say where it landed after that. There was some good photos of the holes it made.

As a kid I always liked pirates and buccaneers. The movies I liked were ones with the swashbuckling hero’s and ones that had cannons in them. When I was in high school, my family moved out of town to a farm house in the country. Jeff, a school classmate lived just down the road and we became school bus riding friends and buddies. One afternoon he invited me over to fire a black powder, cap and ball pistol, his dad had given him. I was hooked on the smoke and noise and smell with just one shot.  Jeff’s dad ran a hardware store that had all the stuff that was needed, and I wanted one. My dad said NO WAY; I did not need or have a use for one. He was right, but I still wanted one. To work around it, I bought the supplies and Jeff and I used his pistol.

After I got a boat, I wanted to have a cannon on it, just in case I ran in to pirates. 8-) It was just a thought that jumped in and out of my head off and on for years. Every time there was a pirate festival or event I would get the Cannon Want. When I lived in Key West I saw a small cannon that was about 20 inches long at a cafe and fell in love with it. Now it was my wife that said NO WAY! Her point was it was too heavy for the boat.  She was right about that.

I took pictures of the cannon and tried to make a replica of it. It was OK but it did not look right up close and it did not fire. I still wanted a cannon.

After I built our schooner I got the Cannon Want again after a pirate festival in Ft Myers Fl. A cannon would really look good on the boat at the next pirate festival. That little evil idea floated in my head for weeks. I went to the net and found cannons are not cheap but could be had. I found a fully functional 1/10^th scale, brass 24 pounder naval canon kit that was affordable. 

I bought it and put it together. It is one attractive cannon. The cannon looks nice on the boat. There is no way I would fire it. The cannon is not much bigger than the cap and ball pistol I shot as a kid and that had a wonderful kick to it. To tie the cannon down and the fire hazard to the wood and the sails is something I would not even want to contend with. It does look impressive.

I have thought about a larger yard cannon that would fire golf balls, but my wife said NO WAY to that also.  It would drive the head of our neighborhood watch guy and our next door neighbor crazy, so there still may be a chance for that. 8-) 

Here is the address about the cannon ball shot.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2070977/Mythbusters-crew-shoots-cannonball-HOUSE-van-stunt-goes-terribly-wrong.html

The Cannon looks great on the boat, and it could shoot 1/2 inch musket balls.

Inexpensive boat protection...a fender board.

Keeping your boat from bouncing off a dock piling while moored can be a problem. I have seen some very creative ways of tying boat bumpers to boats and pilings to solve the problem. An easy fix is to use a simple fender board. Two boat bumpers and a board is all that is needed.

Women are more creative when it comes to tying boat bumpers to boats and docks and coming up with things to use as bumpers. Some that I have seen were elaborate and they worked to prevent boat damage.  One of the most impressive bumpers was one made from a large mesh bag filled with capped plastic bottles. There were soda bottles, water bottles, juice bottles, and any plastic bottle she could find. She called it her recycled green boat bumper.  It did work well, but the crackling crunching sound was unreal. It worked so well that the rest of us near her boat gave her bumpers so she would retire her crackling one. She was not so dumb.

To make a bumper set-up that protects the boat from a piling, all you need is two standard boat bumpers and a board.  The bumpers are attached to the boat so they would be on either side of the piling. A board that is longer than the distance between the two bumpers is hung over them so the ends of the board rest against the bumpers and the middle rests the piling. The boat can move a little forward or backward and up and down and the board rubs the piling and the board is kept off the boat by the spaced bumpers.  It is cheap and it works and it is quick to set up.

First find a board to use as a fender.  Drill two holes in the board, one at each end of the board. Tie a line through each of the holes. These lines will be used to tie the fender board to the boat. Next tie two regular boat bumpers to the boat, so they would be on either side of where the piling would rest on the boat. Now tie the fender board to the boat so it is between the piling and the boat bumpers. The boat bumpers keep the fender board away from the boat, and the piling rubs the fender board. This is a cheap and easy way to protect the boat.