The Pink Flamingo in Arizona

The Pink Flamingo is now in Arizona and has been for a year.  By the time we moved out it was too hot to work on it and being that the marinas are a hundred steps down when the water is high, a 1/4 mile walk to the slip, and 30 minutes from the nearest Home Depot I figured it was best to finish the majority of work on shore before dropping it in.  But as always time flew by and it’s hot again and time to drop it in the water.

In the last year I finished most of the inside, wiring, added a more permanent hatch for the top, and designed and helped build a 6′ swim platform that has a 3′ section that will drop in the water.  At least I hope it will.  It’s been 10+ years since I’ve done any real Mechanical Engineering work so most of it was by the seat of my pants design.  On the swim platform I decided to go with a white aluminum deck.  We actually need more weight in the back but a wood deck would float and the composite almost floats plus gets too hot.  While the aluminum transfers heat fast the white color actually helps keep it a bit cooler in the blaring Arizona sun than the wood was.

Hales Marine had repainted the entire upper cabin for me and I must say it looks sharp.  With the graphics added on The Pink Flamingo is looking better than the day it was built I bet.