Here's a blog with some good photos of part of the procedure:
http://blog.boatschool.com/november2006/

Follow the links to see the whole process, the boat is gorgeous, more like a work of art, it is a catboat like the one I made, but much more delicate. The planking is lighter and the ribs are 1/4 the size ours were. I wonder if the sail area on their boat has to be diminished to compensate for the lack of weight?

27′ long, 3′ wide, Red Cedar? Holy shit! :eek:

One of the lumberyards I used to buy hardwood from regularly had Mahagony that was 2-3 inches thick, 36" x 22 feet. But that was in the Bronx! When I was sailing in SE AK I'd see huge, 4 and 5 foot wide planks stacked ten feet high. The Northwest is like the Texas of the Northwest. (Everything is bigger)

I guess I'm a bit late to this thread. I'm glad to see you're picking up something you love. Everyone should be able to do something he/she loves no matter how frivolous it may seem to some. Some women like shop therapy, and some men like building stuffs. :D

It's workshop therapy!

Dead Sexy:
http://www.boat-links.com/PT/PT2003/American-1.jpg

Are you sure you should be looking at boat pron? You could have a relapse.

Not long after this thread started, my son and I went down into the basement and built a small boat model out of scraps. About a foot long. It's just a rowboat and is not made according any any plan. Slapped together by eye. I should post some pictures. It came out pretty well. The ten year old epoxy actually still works.

It both satisfied an urge this thread is giving me and also whet my appetite for more.

Bad news. I've been seeing other forums... I actually have been posting in them too.
www.WCHA.org (wooden canoe heritage association)
and http://forum.woodenboat.com/

I don't know what to say. They're really nice forums, I think you'd actually like them.

I know about those forums and their one-track minds.

Go West young man!

I did.

Yeah, well that's how Tiger started. Seemed harmless, but cost him $500 million in the end. :eyebrow:

my recent boat building

You have Gibbs' Syndrome.

(NCIS reference)

You bastard, you know I've got issues.

It's been 3 years since I wrote that, and the kayak hasn't been treated kindly. Its storage location went from being under a cottage to under a deck. And snow melt got past the cockpit cover and filled the entire kayak, including behind the bulkheads, with water that year.

It's seen too much UV exposure, and lost much of its epoxy finish on the deck.
Attachment 44730

A close up of the cockpit (with damaged cover in place) shows the real wear and tear on the deck. Lots of bare wood there.
Attachment 44731

So, did you ever actually use it?

At least the hull still looks pretty good. A few scrapes, but nothing major.
Attachment 44732

I wound up bringing it home from the family lake up in Wayne County, PA, and am going to keep it in the back yard for now. At least for the next two years.

I've wrapped it up to protect it from the sun, and hopefully keep critters out of it. But I'm not so sure it's a good idea to inhibit ventilation like this.
Attachment 44733

I plan to someday sand the deck down to bare wood and reapply some epoxy. And maybe this time put some UV inhibiting spar varnish on top of that.

It got a fair amount of use. But only for a weekend or two a year over 12 years.

I wasn't able to keep it at the lake in PA for a variety of reasons, but I'm not too thrilled with it being in the back yard now. Kind of ugly. I wish I had a garage. I'd hang it from the rafters.

Put legs under it and call it your new kitchen table.

Maybe I could rig up a hay loft door in our attic with a pulley system and store it up there.

You'd get a much more useful attic space. Are you going to refinish the boat?

Well, the attic has blown in cellulose insulation and no floor, so it gets no use now. But I could, in theory, hang this from the rafters. Maybe put down a narrow walkway over the joists so I can get up there without the worry of stepping through the ceiling.

I'd have to turn the gable vent into a door, make some sort of telescoping or sliding boom and attach pulleys to it. It would probably be easier to build a shed.

A narrow walkway is a good idea in most attics - you can check for squirrel nests etc. and also store things like your kayak. I was thinking that I'd probably either suspend it or at least store it (padded) upside-down on a couple of sawhorses, with the cockpit covered so critters don't nest, but left open enough that air can get at it. It was beautiful when you made it - be nice to refinish it.

Put a stamp on it, and send it to Kentucky! I'll take good care of it.

Promise.


ETA: What's it weigh, out of curiosity?

Attachment 61614

I have one of those! And now I know what it is!:lol2:

Cool! I've seen them before and didn't know what they were for.

I like that drawing table setup. I want one, but more importantly, I want an extra room where I can have it set up all the time. I had a little unit of drafting while doing industrial arts in Junior High School. I thought it was really cool. I know everything is computers these days. Sketch-Up and Auto-CAD and stuff, but there's something about thinking "I want a line here" and just drawing the damn thing there.

Likewise. I had drafting in school too, and I did already know what that is, though I don't have one anymore.

High school drafting class is where I got mine. The same guy did Woodworking I, and Drafting, so I took both, back to back, the last two periods of the day, and didn't have to come back to the main building before going home.

My 'first' was his teacher's assistant.:doit:

Drill, baby, drill!

I've got all the drafting tools he has except the brain.
I don't think I've seen a wet lumber bandsaw before.