Taking The Next Step Toward Boatbuilding

The house in East Boothbay.

Life has been busy, busy, busy lately. Hence the lack of posts here.

My book draft is now in the hands of the team at Popular Woodworking Books, with some 1400 captioned photos.

My shop time has been occupied teaching individual classes. That's produced good material for some upcoming technique blog posts.

I've started reading through my stack of boatbuilding books. That'll take a while, but Greg Rossel's excellent Building Small Boats has been a great first step, detailing the sequence of operations.

A Place To Build Boats

The next step in the journey is the other big thing occupying my time, a place to build boats. That place is in East Boothbay, Maine, where my mother-in-law has now bought a house. She'll live there in the warm months, then with us in the cold months. Meanwhile, we'll spend weekends and vacations there. Eventually, we'll retire there permanently.

The two main criteria for the house were that it be near water, and that it have a space for my woodworking, specifically large enough for small boatbuilding. We had previously owned a house near the Damariscotta River in Boothbay, Maine, so we were familiar with East Boothbay. That was our general search region. It's spectacularly beautiful, as you can see from this image search.

The house she bought meets the criteria wonderfully. Built in the mid-to-late 1800's, it sits directly across the street from the historic shipyard waterfront of East Boothbay, on the bend of the Damariscotta a couple miles upriver from open ocean.

They've been building ships and boats there since the 1700's. Two small yards are still active, Hodgdon Yachts, America's oldest boat builder, building high-end sailing and motor yachts, and Washburn & Doughty, building commercial tugs and fireboats. 

Hodgdon Yachts is on the site of the former Goudy and Stevens yard, where Louis Sauzedde (www.TipsFromAShipwright.com) worked on the replica of the yacht America as a teenager in the late '60's.

In between those yards is a public boat ramp and a separate kayak ramp. There's another public boat onto Linekin Bay less than a mile away. Ocean Point Marina, where we used to keep our old boat, is 50 yards upriver, on the other side of the mouth to the tidal millpond.

So near water, check. About 100 yards from house to ramp. The river is visible past the Washburn & Doughty buildings. Their launchings are always an event.

The workspace is behind the house, a small barn with loft and one-car garage. It's perfect. There's a big sliding door in the wall that opens to an ideal spot for a small boat construction frame, leaving plenty of space on the side for workbenches and general woodworking. The loft upstairs is perfect for, well, lofting! And sailmaking.

Rear view of the house showing the barn.

At some point this will become Close Grain North, where I'll teach private classes in hand tool woodworking, violin-making, and boatbuilding. Of course, I have to learn how to do those latter two myself first. See one, do one, teach one.

There are many other small boatbuilders in the area, as well as riggers and sailmakers. The shop of Nathaniel Wilson, master sailmaker, whose work graces the USS Constitution, among many other historic ships, is a couple houses upriver from the marina. That's only a quarter mile walk from the house.

I picked up this great poster for Nathaniel Wilson at the Maine Boatbuilders Show in Portland in March.

The whole area is just steeped in it, with 300 years of history. I even met a lady who's a former instructor at the WoodenBoat School and staff editor at WoodenBoat Magazine. For an aspiring boatbuilder, you couldn't ask for anything more.

I continue to learn about other schools in the area. In Bristol, on the other side of the river, there's the Carpenter's Boat Shop. Then just down the road from that there's the Maine Coast Craft School.

The latter school is particularly interesting because founders Kenneth and Angela Kortemeier have taken over the torch from Drew and Louise Langsner's Country Workshops in North Carolina now that they have retired. Kenneth was an intern at Country Workshops in the 90's (Peter Follansbee is another Country Workshops alum).

Boothbay Region Historical Society

When we first found the house, I was curious about the history of the barn. I was aware of the long history of boat and shipbuilding in the area, so I wondered if it might have been used as a workshop by someone building small workboats for the bigger ships.

I contacted the Boothbay Region Historical Society, and over the course of a few emails, historian Barbara Rumsey very graciously gave me some information.

The real-estate listing said the house was from the 1880's, but based on tax records, she felt it could have been built in the late 1860's. She also felt the barn was probably a small livestock barn, since it was common at the time for families to have a few animals.

I visited the Society, where Barbara showed me how to go through their copies of the old tax collector's books. That was fascinating. The book for each year was a hand-written account of every resident and their taxable property, roughly alphabetical by last name.

People were taxed on their land, buildings, and various types of livestock. There was even a heading for musical instruments over $15 (a significant sum in the 1880's). Anyone who had an ox was very popular; they were like the guy with a truck you could hire to help haul stuff.

What she had found was that the house's street address appeared in the book for 1882, listed under the name Alvin Goudy and occupied by his mother. That gave me a starting point.

Working back through earlier records, I found Alvin Goudy's name first listed for that location in 1867. Working forward to see if taxes increased due to property improvements (for instance, adding the barn), there didn't appear to a major change. So it's possible the house and barn have been there since 1867.

What I wasn't able to determine was what Alvin did for a living. Presumably he was of the same Goudys as Goudy & Stevens shipyard. Lacking any other evidence, it seems likely the barn was indeed used for livestock.

After we closed on the house, I stopped by the Society again to say hi, and found Barbara talking to another gentleman. She said he was one of my neighbors in East Boothbay, Nat Wilson. I said, "The sailmaker!"

Indeed it was. I told him sailmaking was another thing I needed to learn, and I would love to visit his shop. He invited me to stop by any time. The mind boggles. What more could an aspiring boatbuilder ask?

Hobie Tandem Island

Since building even a small boat is 100 to 200 hours of work, it'll be a year or two at hobbyist pace before I have something ready to put in the water. In the meantime, I'm happy to enjoy some rotomolded plastic fun.

So under the heading of YOLO, I bought a Hobie Tandem Island, which is an amazing trimaran sit-on-top tandem sailing sea kayak. It has pedal-powered Mirage drives. The pedals power fins that move sideways, inspired by penguin fins; they're even reversible so you can backup as well as go forwards. You can paddle, pedal, or sail!

This thing is a marvel of mechanical engineering. The modular assemblies go together quickly and easily for use, and detach just as easily for breakdown. As a tandem, it's large, 18' long; as a trimaran, it's heavy, 240 lbs. fully rigged.

But those outriggers (called "amas") make it incredibly stable, able to handle any kind of conditions, even out to open ocean. That's perfect for the Maine coastal river estuaries. It has molded-in fishing rod holders, and Hobie says it's even suitable for bluewater trolling. I've never been a fisherman, but this I can get behind!

How To Transport A Hobie Tandem Island, New In Box

We spent a small fortune on Thule pickup truck bed and roof racks to transport the boat from Sebago Sailing And Watercraft in Raymond, ME. But with a boat that long, I wanted a good secure support to avoid damaging it or the truck. And now we have a very versatile hauling setup.

The boat was in two packages. The main hull was wrapped in a long bubblewrap bag. The amas and all other parts were in a cardboard box about 14' long. Both fit side by side on the racks. Captain Mike, a tall fellow (who also has a timberframing business), helped us load it up. His wife Maura had been my contact for buying it.

The boat loaded on my wife's F150 pickup truck. Mounted to the bed is a Thule XSporter Pro rack. On the roof is a pair of Thule AeroBlade bars. I secured the packages to the racks with 25' lengths of half-inch climbing webbing fore and aft.

To unload the boat on our own, I used a retired climbing rope and a pair of carabiners to rig a 2-to-1 haul system from the upper door of the barn. My wife, Cat, belayed the rope to sway the front end of the box down off the rack while I stood on my toes and lifted off the other end. That allowed her to lower away easily. Then we repeated that with the main hull.


Cat belays the box.


Belaying the main hull.

I unpackaged everything and laid it out, then followed the instructions on assembly. It didn't take long. The boat is made to break down for transport with minimum fuss. I had also bought a heavy-duty two-wheel dolly that included a cradle for the amas.


The boat fully assembled with sail unfurled. You've heard of sailing on the mooring? This is sailing on the driveway.

This boat also takes a spinnaker. That'll be next year after we've spent some time buzzing up and down the river and out the mouth.

When I Grow Up

My Harry Bryan plans arrived yesterday!

I've figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be Harry Bryan. Harry is a boatbuilder in Letete, New Brunswick, Canada, just across the border from Maine on the Bay of Fundy. This is a breathtakingly beautiful area of wooded, rocky coastline, crystal clear water and enormous tides.

Harry lives off the grid, building wooden boats with a few alternatively-powered power tools and a bunch of hand tools. His philosophy is one of slowing down, going back to the land, making rather than buying, relying on yourself, your skills and ingenuity, and never stop learning.

He's extremely inventive, combining traditional boatbuilding methods with creative solutions. Anybody for a treadle-powered bandsaw?

It is an idyllic life, no doubt with its challenges, but he and his wife have succeeded, raising a family and enjoying time with their grandkids. The appeal and the draw of this life are powerful.

I first heard of Harry when my daughter participated in a project at her high school to build his dory skiff Daisy. Now I find that there are a number of videos featuring him online (more about that below). Here are two that captured my imagination, Slowing Down, The Schmee of a Successful Man, and The Closest Thing to Magic – Of Boats and Boathouses.

Harry is like Phil Lowe and Al Breed, what I call a shut-up-and-watch master of the craft. If you get a chance to spend time with them, you don't interrupt them, you just shut up and watch, absorbing the decades of knowledge and experience. Whatever they want to show you is well worth your time.

I've finally succumbed to the lure of boatbuilding. I learned to sail in 2000, and became intrigued with small wooden boats in 2005 when I found John Gardner's Building Classic Small Craft: Complete Plans and Instructions for 47 Boats at the bookstore in Boothbay Harbor, ME.

At the time we had recently bought a small vacation house close to the nearby Damariscotta River, where I kept a 23' O'Day sailboat that was built the year I graduated from high school (we had to sell the place in order to afford getting the kids through college, but we'll be back, count on it). I resisted the siren call to build my own for a long time, because I knew there was no going back.

Everybody who knows someone with a boat knows what boat crazy is. But wooden boats, and building them, is a special kind of insanity. Why mess about with all that rigamarole when you can throw a sleek gel-coated fiberglass modern creation in the water?

First of all, because, indeed, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

Second, wood adds to that romance. The history of thousands of years is under you as you glide across the surface. Plus wood is such a wonderful material to work with, engaging all the senses. You become part of it.

Finally, there's the pure satisfaction of using something you've made yourself with the skill of your own hands. Even the simplest boats are complex shapes. Building them is much more an exercise in hand tool work than power tools.

Sure, there are dozens, if not hundreds of board feet of planking to get out and plane to thickness, and hundreds, if not thousands, of screws to drill and drive, so a benchtop planer and a power drill/driver are huge labor savers for very repetitive tasks.

But most of it is handcrafting lines that are curving continuously and fitting parts that meet at odd compound angles. Even driving screws is worth completing with a brace and driver bit to give you that delicate feedback to know when they're seated just right.

When you're done, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor in an intensely sensuous fashion. The Damariscotta River is a lovely small river that opens out to open ocean, with spectacularly gorgeous rocky, pine covered coastline. The tidal range in that area is a good 10'. That means it's actually a reversing river, flowing upriver on the rising tide, and downriver on the ebb. There's even a small reversing falls at the head of the river in the town of Damariscotta.

This also means the river has many personalities, from a glass-still surface at slack tide, to a fast race when the downriver flow joins the tidal flow, to the chop and wild wind of a late November storm. You feel the power of nature, held in check or unleashed.

Whether it's the mesmerizing burst and glide lazily pulling in a rowboat across the glassy river at slack tide, or the full heel of a sailboat close-hauled to the wind sluicing across the current, or a gentle drift from the head of the river  down to the mouth after having sailed up beat on beat on the flood, you feel it with your whole body. You are joined with that power, harnessed to it in a vessel of your own making.

Learning

First, of course, I need to learn how to build them. I've added significantly to my library with modern and classic books on wooden boatbuilding, rigging, and sailmaking from Amazon. You can also find supplies there, such as sailmaker's palms, needles, and thread.


Additions to my library.

The Internet has also provided a vast treasure trove of articles, forums, and videos.  I often watch videos at 1.5x or 2x speed. The YouTube player has a speed setting for this in Settings. The Vimeo player doesn't have a speed setting, but the unofficial Vimeo repeat and speed extension for Chrome works well, allowing any speed.

There are many more to be explored, but three video sites in particular have caught my attention.

Off Center Harbor

First is OffCenterHarbor.com, an inexpensive membership site (it uses Vimeo for video when logged in, although some videos are also on YouTube). This is where I found the Harry Bryan videos.

This was the tipping point for me, what tempted me to approach the black hole until I got sucked in. For this I can blame Al Hansen, from the Guild Of New Hampshire Woodworkers Boatbuilding subgroup. He recommended it at a Guild meeting where I was giving a demonstration on hand tool tag-teaming.

OCH is filled with videos, some how-to, some just to drool over. It's headquartered in Brooklin, ME, about halfway between Boothbay and Harry's shop in Canada. They have a number of videos of Harry at work, explaining some of his nefarious devices and showing the boats he's designed and built.

Based on these, I've ordered several plans from Harry, as well as for the Off Center Skiff. One of these will be my first build. Although there's also that Nutshell pram, that's cute. Auuuggghh!

Traditional Maritime Skills

Second is Traditional Maritime Skills, the YouTube channel of Marcus Lewis, from Cornwall, UK. He has a variety of videos showing building small sailing dinghies up to larger sailboats.

Tips From A Shipwright

Third is Tips From A Shipwright, the YouTube channel of Louis Sauzedde, from North Kingstown, RI. Louis is another shut-up-and-watch guy, a short, wiry ball of energy, the living embodiment of the saying "When ships were wood and men were iron."

In addition to a great series on a new build, he has lots of videos of restoration work. He doesn't hesitate to open up all the planking of a boat to fit in new frames, or unstitch the entire bow to replace the stem.

You can read a nice article about him in the sample digital issue of WoodenBoat Magazine, entitled "A Modern Traditional Boatbuilder."

Schools

In my online travels, I've come across a couple of schools. I'm sure there are many more.

• The WoodenBoat School is in Brooklin, ME.
• The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is in Port Hadlock, Washington. They have a very nice introductory video. I like the philosophy of self-sufficiency and using boatbuilding as an approach to developing general hands-on skills, learning how to make anything.

Suppliers

I've also found several suppliers. As with schools, I'm sure there are many more.

• WoodenBoat is the site dedicated to all things wooden boat. Browsing it is a sure sign of that slide into insanity. But what a glorious insanity it is! 
• Jamestown Distributors is a family-run business in Bristol, RI, and is the sponsor for Louis Sauzedde's videos. They have parts, tools, adhesives, and finishes.
• Toplicht "Equipment for traditional ships and classic yachts, supplier for boat builders" in Hamburg, Germany. They appear to be a go-to supplier for all kinds of common and obscure fittings and supplies. They sell oakum!
• Duckworks Boat Builder's Supply is a small family-owned business in Port Townsend, WA. Their website includes an online magazine.
• Sailmaker's Supply is a small business in Gautier, Mississippi.
• R&W Rope’s Traditional Rigging & Outfitting Division is a family-owned business in New Bedford, MA. In addition to rope and traditional fittings, they also have caulking and splicing tools.
• Hamilton Marine is a regional boating supply chain along the Maine coast.
• West Marine is a national boating supply chain.

Lie-Nielsen 30th Anniversary Open House

A beautiful summer day in Warren, ME.

Saturday, I went to the Lie-Nielsen 30th anniversary open house, in Warren, ME. It was a gorgeous day, barely a wisp of cloud in the sky, though quite warm. I had been to the 25th anniversary open house in 2006, where I bought my first Lie-Nielsen tools, a pair of small joinery saws and a dowel plate.

This was a good buying trip, too, since after 5 years I finally stepped up and bought a #4 and #7, as well as a small shoulder plane and set of saw sharpening files, and the Steve Latta DVD on federal table inlay. Thanks to my dear wife for letting me buy them, I know she loves me! While I've tuned my old Stanley 4, 6, and 7 reasonably well, there's no question that the LN's just work better every time I've tried them.

One of the things I like about the Lie-Nielsen events is that they bring in a number of other small tool vendors and schools, plus well-known guest demonstrators. This is a chance to try out some great tools and watch some highly-skilled woodworkers. I've learned never to pass up a chance to watch someone who's better than me. My apologies to those I've overlooked here.


Ron Brese with his custom infill planes. The mass of these planes imakes them oblivious to the wood, they just float across, producing feathery shavings. Unfortunately, they exceed even my expanded budget. http://www.breseplane.com/ and http://www.breseplane.blogspot.com/.


Bob Van Dyke of the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. He gave me some excellent tips on fitting tenons, and told me about an upcoming class Steve Latta will be teaching on federal table building. My neighbor down the street, Freddy Roman, whom I met through SAPFM, is an instructor for CVSW. http://www.schoolofwoodworking.com/.


Garrett Hack. I had him autograph an article in one of my books, under his autograph from the 25th anniversary open house. I also put in my request for a design book of some sort. I love his work, full of fine, subtle details. Are you listening, Taunton? http://www.garretthack.com/.


Peter Follansbee demonstrating 17th-century carving. I had met him when he did a demonstration for the NE chapter of SAPFM in May. He told me he follows Close Grain on the UnpluggedShop.com aggregator. I don't have any books or articles by Peter, so I had him autograph my copy of Drew Langsner's book Green Woodworking under Drew's autograph, since he's taught at Drew's school. http://www.peterfollansbee.com/ and http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/.


Christian Becksvoort demonstrating dovetailing. He doesn't saw out the waste, he chisels up the top 1/16th-inch chip or two, similar to making half-blind dovetails, then makes a deep chop with the chisel slightly undercutting. He repeats on the other side, which completes the chop through. A quick cleanout of the corners with a sharp Murphy knife, and it's done. Wait a second, Murphy knives are made 3 blocks from my house! http://www.chbecksvoort.com/.


Jameel Abraham with his Benchcrafted products, using his tiny miter box for slicing inlays. He showed me how he works with the geometric inlays featured in his article in the April, 2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. These are just beautiful, and once you have a few shapes, you can form them into complex repeating patterns. He looked at my CloseGrain logo T-shirt and said, "Is that your blog? I know you!" Cool! http://benchcrafted.com/ and http://benchcrafted.blogspot.com/.


Upstairs in the classroom, it's hand tool heaven. Multiple benches set up, with plenty of LN tools and demonstrators answering questions and showing people how to use them.


Kevin Drake, of Glen-Drake Toolworks, whom I had also met at the 25th. I use his Tite-Mark gauge all the time. http://www.glen-drake.com/.


Raney Nelson, of Daed Toolworks, and more infill planes that just glide across the work. http://www.daedtoolworks.com/ and http://www.daedtoolworks.com/blog/.


Matt Bickford's molding planes. He showed me a set of ogee bracket feet he had made with the large pair of #13 hollow and round on the left end of the row. http://www.msbickford.com/ and http://musingsfrombigpink.blogspot.com/.


Pat Megowan, an Oregon furnituremaker working as a demonstrator for LN, left, and Konrad Sauer. Pat is trying out one of Konrad's magnificent Sauer and Steiner infills. I went through his whole set, making pillow-filling shavings. http://patmegowan.blogspot.com/; http://www.sauerandsteiner.com/ and http://sauerandsteiner.blogspot.com/.

Pat was particularly helpful when I was trying out the LN 4's and 7's. He critiqued several details of my plane handling and gave me some important tips. In particular, I was using too much downward pressure, especially on the toe of the plane, and too much arm motion, not enough lower body. He set the 7 for a heavier cut and had me work on putting more body into it, saying, "Imagine how fast that tires you out if you use too much arm motion." These are the kind of fine details that make it worth paying close attention to others more skilled than I.

I also had a nice conversation with a lovely young lady named Emily who turned out to be a boat-builder. I don't have a picture of her, which is just as well, because everyone would be emailing me asking for her phone number! I told her about my daughter's school project building Harry Bryan's dory skiff, and Harry's email about it. It turned out she knows Harry, and had seen him a couple weeks ago at the Mystic Wooden Boat Show.

And speaking of Harry, there was an organization there featuring boatbuilding, the Compass Project, which bases a youth development program on building and rowing. The wooden kayak they had on display? A Harry Bryan design. Naturally, I found that out as a result of telling them about my daughter's project. Yes, the proud father on the loose!

The day ended with a lobster bake, catered by the Narrows Tavern in Waldoboro, ME. This was the best lobster I've ever had! They also had clams, which were also the best I've ever had, and I'm not normally a clam person.

My wife and I were joined for dinner by Duane, the fellow who had been the first to respond and get me one of my first interviews when I was laid off back in December. He's another hobbyist who works near me in the same industry.



The guys from Narrows Tavern pulling the lobsters out. They baked them in seawood on a steel plate elevated over a small fire. Hot work on a hot day!


Setting out the plates of lobster, clams, and corn. The seaweed was not part of the meal.

Actually, the day hadn't quite ended yet. Timber framer Steve Chappell and his three sons were working on a small replica of the roof and cupola structure on the LN building. They had been at it all day, and worked past dinner to complete it. It was full of intricate, precise joinery, like a giant puzzle hewn from the raw timbers.

I bought a copy of the new 2011 edition of Steve's book, A Timber Framer's Workshop: Joinery, Design & Construction of Traditional Timber Frames, and had him autograph it. This is spectacular in breadth, full of details of design, construction, and engineering. I'll probably never get to build a timber-frame project, but I'll know how!


Steve paring the shoulder of a tenon with a large framing slick.


Closeup of Asher Chappell paring another tenon. The precision fitting was beautiful, because everything had to come together at once.


Tait Chappell paring off the point on the tenon of a rafter. Ok, that's probably not the right term, but I haven't read the book yet!


The base fitted in place.


Rapid progress on assembly once all the trimming and fitting has been done.


A tough crowd: all the LN demonstrators, including the Australian LN distributor (who knows Derek Cohen, whom I follow on several woodworking forums). How's that for a little pressure?


Setting rafters from the four corners. Tom Lie-Nielsen watches in the background at the end of the building.


After some final adjustments, the structure is complete. It should also have a cap, but they didn't have time for that.

A note of travelogue: my wife and I spent the night at the lovely Craignair Inn, at Spruce Head off the main road from Thomaston. Breakfast was an excellent frittata and tomato on English muffin, with blueberry and orange muffins on the side.


How about waking up to this every morning? The view off the porch outside the dining room.


We stayed in the vestry building.

I'm looking forward to the 35th!

Harry Bryan Responds

When I posted about my daughter Shelby's boat-building project at school, I googled Harry Bryan and found his website. He's the designer, builder, and author of the Wooden Boat articles the teacher used.

Since Harry's website is very basic and doesn't list an email address, I figured he probably has limited Internet access. So I printed out a copy of the post (over 20 pages with photos!) and mailed it to him. Or tried to. Imagine my surprise when the lady at the Post Office told me they weren't accepting mail for Canada due to a postal strike.

I kept an eye on the news, and once the strike ended, I sent it off. Then this morning I was tickled pink to get this email:

Dear Mr. Branam,

Thank you for sending the account of the first phase of building the "Daisy" skiff.  It looks like a good job.  My own "Daisy" prototype (1991) is in the cove below the house.  She has never leaked at all (something to keep in mind when you feel that the laminated bottom is taking forever).

Thanks, too for using the mail as downloading pictures on this dial-up system takes forever.

Harry

And thank you, Harry, that makes a great personal connection for the kids who worked on it.

I showed it to Shelby, and she said, "That's really cool! You should forward it to Mr. Smith!" Done, sweetie!

IACS Endersession: Dory Skiff Daisy

My daughter, Shelby, is a junior at Innovation Academy Charter School, a public high school in Tyngsboro, MA. At the end of the year, they offer the students various choices of week-long "endersession" activities. These range from backpacking trips in Vermont, to theater tours in Boston, to various creative projects. Shelby's choice: building the Harry Bryan dory skiff "Daisy", from Wooden Boat issues 126 and 127, Sept/Oct and Nov/Dec, 1995. Makes a father proud!

Click on the covers to order hardcopy or PDF downloads of these issues. The left cover photo shows the Daisy a-building.

Building a boat like this is an ambitious project. There's hardly a straight line or square angle to be found. It's all sweeping curves and odd compound angles. That means lots of shaping with chisels, shaves, drawknives, rasps, and planes. It's built upside down by laying chines and planking on station molds. Then the shell is removed and the interior and topside work is done.

Add to that inherent complexity the fact that most of the students have little if any experience with tools. That makes for a challenging project, with many opportunities for mistakes that have to be dealt with. And of course everything takes four times as long under classroom conditions. But this is the true essence of education. Complexity, challenge, problem solving.

They knew they wouldn't have time to complete it; just building the ladder frame and molds took the first two days. The goal was to complete the planking and remove it from the mold. They got close, but didn't quite make it. Finishing it will be a project for next year.

Teacher David Smith led the group, with help from several parents throughout the week. In addition to Shelby, there were 8 other students, though a couple were out sick part of the week. I didn't get a chance to talk to all their parents, so I'll just use some initials here for now, but the other students were Niamh (from the Gaelic, pronounced "Neeve"), Rick, Gustav, Jess, Chris, JH, BY, and ZM. Mr. Smith spent seven years as a boatbuilder in Maine, New York, and Massachusetts before becoming a history teacher.

I wasn't able to stay the first two days, but Niamh's mother, Colleen, was there those days, and her father, Chris, made it Friday. Arthur, a professional woodworker and father of a student in a different session, was also there most of the week. I took vacation the last three days to be there.

They had benchtop planer, tablesaw, chopsaw, bandsaw, cordless drill,  several hand tools, and an assortment of clamps. I still had all my tools and portable Underhill workbench in my van after participating in the SAPFM demo in Newport Sunday, so Monday when I dropped Shelby off, I also dropped these off, along with another bin full of clamps (you really can't have too many clamps building boats!). I setup the bench and gave Mr. Smith a quick demonstration of how to use it's work-holding features with holdfasts.

By Monday afternoon they had the first station mold mounted and had planed all the cedar planking to proper thickness. By Tuesday afternoon they had the remainder of the molds in place and had completed most of the transom and stem.

The task for Wednesday was getting the transom, stem, and chines, all of oak, temporarily mounted on the molds. The transom and stem require careful work due to the curves and compound bevels that have to be worked. The chines (the corners where bottom and sides meet) in this design are split most of their length with the bandsaw to make them flexible, then clamped across the mold corners with epoxy in the split. When the epoxy cures, the chines hold the compound curves they've been fitted to.

From left, Shelby, Mr. Smith, Jess, and Niamh with frame and molds, ready for the transom, stem, and chines. Note that for this design, the strongback runs across the top of the molds rather than across the ladder frame.

Chris finishes up the last segment of transom bevel with a spokeshave while Gustav steadies the bench. I told him you won't find much tougher stuff to work than oak end grain.

Jess learning how to plane a scrap of oak left over from the stem. I showed her how to thickness it with a #5, flatten the face with a #6, and smooth it with a #4, each step producing different characteristic shavings. After I showed her how to shape the curve and edges with spokeshave and Shinto rasp, she said she wished the school had a woodshop, and spent the next half hour sculpting the piece. As always, making shavings is addictive!

Shelby roughing in the bevel on the curved stem with my large drawknife. Mr. Smith was nervous about the kids handling such a large blade, but gave Shelby permission as long as I provided parental supervision. She followed up with a spokeshave, then I finished taking it down to the lines with shave, block plane, and chisel.

With the transom and stem temporarily screwed in place, the whole group working on the chine glue up, brushing the epoxy into the splits. Things start to get hectic once the epoxy is mixed, especially on a warm, sunny day to speed the chemical reaction.

The chines clamped in place across the molds and screwed to cleats on the transom, with additional clamps to hold the splits together while the epoxy cures.

Thursday's task was to bevel the chines and install the first layer of bottom planking. These run athwartships; the outer layer runs fore-and-aft, like the side planking.

Mr. Smith holds a batten as a guide for Shelby to mark a fair curve for the top of the chine bevel.

JH sands off the excess cured epoxy on the other chine. In the background, Jess is putting on sunscreen; it got to 90 degrees. Thank goodness for portable canopies, we never would have been able to work without shade.

Shelby using a gauge block to mark the top edge of the chine bevel.

While BY and Jess watch, JH and ZM practice beveling with a block plane and spokeshave.

Beveling the chines to match the angle at the molds.

This is a critical point: joining the chines to the stem at the bow. We hadn't brought them in close enough when the epoxy was wet, so once it cured they were a little too far apart. This required a bit of force to bring them together and screw them in, springing them out a bit from the molds.

Jess applies marine adhesive to the top of the chines. This will seal the joint with the inner bottom planks.

Temporarily nailing the second plank to the strongback and chines.

Halfway there. The mating edges of the planks have expoxy, so this all has to be completed before the batch of epoxy sets up. The plastic wrap keeps them from bonding to the strongback.

From behind it looks like some kind of big fish flopped over onto the molds.

After rough trimming of the bottom planks close to the chines with a saber saw, Arthur, Rick, and Shelby finish the day by doing some planing down to the chine bevel.

Friday's job was to finish the bottom planking and get the garboard strakes on (these are the lowest planks on the side, meeting the bottom). The bow section of the chines still needed to be beveled, and the last few bottom planks attached and trimmed. The whole bottom also needed to be beveled down to the chines before the garboards could go on.

Shelby using a ryoba to trim closely to the chine bevel. The closer the cut here, the less time required to plane and shave it down, as the others are doing.

Rick using a spokeshave to delicately trim the bevel at the very tip of the bow.

Bending the starboard side garboard into place for scribing. Niamh is underneath to mark it from the plank lines on the molds.

Gustav scribes along the bottom planks for the bottom cut line. Nobody move!

With a light rain starting outside, curving a batten between nails tacked lightly into the plank (but not the floor!). The batten defines the fair curve to mark the upper cut line.

The bottom fully trimmed, ready to accept the garboards. Once again, the portable canopies allowed us to work regardless of the weather.

After rough cutting to within a quarter inch of the cut lines with a saber saw, Niamh, Jess, and Shelby trim down to the lines with block planes and spokeshave.

While Niamh's father works with Shelby in the background, Gustav works on the other garboard, perfecting the art of making long spills with a spokeshave skewed to the work.

With the result that Chris and Rick appear to be in need of a barber.

Jess applies marine adhesive to the chine and bottom edge.

Preparing to secure the port garboard. This is geometrically counter-intuitive: the bottom of the boat curves downward from the center, while the garboard curves upward. But bending it around another curve at an angle will match the curves.

Bending the plank onto the molds and lining up the marks.

While half the group holds it in place, Mr. Smith drills pilot holes through the garboard into the chine, and Jess and Rick screw in brass screws.

With the port garboard in place, securing the starboard side.

Rick finishes the final screw at the bow.

Packing up, out of time. It would have been nice to complete the planking, but at least you can see a real boat taking shape.

Below are some of my tools that I think were most effective on this project. It's not always obvious which specific tool will work best on a specific task, so it's nice to have a variety to try. The spokeshaves and planes were used quite a bit. The marine adhesive wasn't quite cured, so the tiniest gob would get all over stuff, but denatured alcohol cleaned it right up.

From upper left: #5 jack plane with cambered iron, for fast trimming of chine and plank bevels. #4 smooth plane with Pinnacle iron, set a little fatter than for normal smoothing, did a great follow-up job on the bevels. Framing slick (the large chisel), had mass for finely controlled paring into tight spots. Veritas NX60 block plane, which took beautiful long endgrain shavings across the bottom planks. Shinto rasp, which just eats wood, whether oak or cedar. Ryoba, for close trimming in place. From lower left: ECE wooden block plane was great for endgrain. Antique Stanley cast iron spokeshave worked well shaping plank edges. Lie-Nielsen spokeshave was used on a variety of things, always working magnificently.

The round thing in the photo above? That's what happens when you mix up too much epoxy in a round container; you make a hockey puck. That's not a hockey stick embedded in it, it's a solidified paintbrush. Put a bird on it and call it art!

The kids rapidly figured out the Veritas block plane and Lie-Nielsen spokeshave were standout performers. They were arguing about whose turn it was use them next, not because they were shiny, but because they worked. No surprise; these are some of the finest premium hand tools on the market.

My fine Lie-Nielsen joinery saws were also in the toolbox, but Mr. Smith was worried about letting the kids use such high-end tools. My feeling is, they were meant to be used, so as long as they're treated with care and respect, I'd like to see the kids get the benefit of using quality tools. They could tell the difference.

Good tools also make for good demonstrations. I showed a couple of the boys how to sharpen the slick. I had hollow-ground it the night before, so I showed them how to do 30 seconds each side on medium and fine India stones, then hard Arkansas, then green rouge strop. That got it satisfyingly shaving-sharp: one pass of the chisel flat across my forearm swept the hairs right off. I also went over safe handling of chisels with them; Arthur showed them the scar where he had opened up his hand once with a carving chisel. Sharp hand tools are not to be messed with!

It was a blast working on this with my daughter as we head into Father's Day. I'd like to thank Mr. Smith and the staff at IACS for running it and allowing parents to participate. I think the students enjoyed it just as much.

Oh yeah, I gotta try this at home!

(Continue to part 2)